Police Bust ATM Adhesive Fraud Gang in Kalyan, Four Arrested
The police have busted a gang and arrested four men accused of trapping bank cards with adhesive in ATM slots and draining cash from victims' accounts in Kolsewadi, Kalyan (East). Three of the suspects were intercepted on board a Bihar-bound train after a pursuit by a police team.
The operation began after local police received a complaint regarding an attempt to cheat a citizen at an ATM centre in Kolsewadi, Kalyan (East). Investigators subsequently arrested a man identified as Rajesh Kumar Yadav. During his interrogation, Yadav revealed information that led the police to three additional suspects who were traced to Kongaon in Bhiwandi.
Officers discovered that the three suspects were attempting to flee to Bihar aboard the Patna Express. A police team rushed to Kalyan railway station, but the train had already left the platform. The team chased the moving train and conducted searches across its coaches, ultimately intercepting the suspects before the train reached Kasara. The three arrested men were identified as Hariram Singh, Rohit Kumar Singh, and Sudeep Kumar Vishwakarma.
According to investigators, the gang operated by applying a quick-acting adhesive inside ATM card slots, which caused a customer's debit or credit card to become stuck inside the machine. A member of the gang would then approach the stranded user while pretending to be a helpful bystander, repeatedly asking the victim to enter their security PIN.
While the victim tried to operate the stuck card, the suspect would observe and note down the confidential PIN or obtain it through other means. The victim would subsequently be instructed to call a mobile phone number provided by the bystander and step away from the ATM booth. The police stated that this phone number belonged to another member of the fraud network.
Once the victim stepped away from the machine, the suspects would extract the trapped card and use the memorised PIN to withdraw cash from the account. The police suspect that the gang may have targeted multiple ATM users using this technique and are continuing their investigation to determine the total number of victims and the full amount of stolen money.
