Bengaluru: In a first of its kind case, Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths arrested three cyber criminals, including a Sri Lankan, who were duping people from the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Japan and Iceland from the comfort of their flat in Bengaluru.

The gang only targeted foreigners by cloning their credit cards and swiping them on Point of Sale (POS) machines set up by them in various shops in Assam, Haryana, Chandigarh, Puducherry and Mumbai.

But luck ran out for the trio when they decided to swipe a cloned credit card for the first time in Bengaluru. Now, they are cooling their heels in the jail.

The accused Diane Thomas (30), the Sri Lankan national who is the mastermind, Nadeem Shareef (30), a resident of HBR Layout, and Nawaz Shareef (22) of Kanakanagar were arrested from their flat in Jalahalli.

The sleuths led by CCB ACP H.M. Mahadevappa raided their flat and seized all equipment, including card skimming and sticker cutting machines, laptops, card printing and embossing machines and magnetic strip readers, which they used to clone credit cards.

As many as 114 perfectly cloned credit cards of various banks, 16 fake driving licenses, 36 POS machines, 270 fake ATM cards, lamination machines and empty cards which were to be cloned were seized from the accused.

The police said that Diane had 10 years ago illegally entered Chennai from Sri Lanka and is wanted in two similar cases. “Diane has utilised his diploma electronics knowledge to the fullest and has conned thousands of people. Three years ago, he befriended Nawaz and Nadeem on Facebook and shifted his base to Bengaluru,” a police officer who is part of the CCB team said.

The accused had sub-leased the three-bedroom flat from one Tom Joe by paying Rs 50,000 a month and had no agreement. The police said that all the shop owners who had agreed to keep the POS machines are the accused in the case and soon will be arrested.

How were they caught?
It was a coincidence, says Mr Mahadevappa. The CCB police were investigating 29 card skimming cases reported in the city last week. “Accidently we met the owner of an electronics shop, Vishnupriya International, on Friday at a bank who told us that two people on June 21 had purchased three LED TVs worth ` 1.10 lakh through a credit card and that he is yet to receive the payment even after 15 days. He said that he was duped by the people who used fake credit card to buy the TVs and lodged a complaint,” the police said,

Following the complaint, based on the mobile number given at the time of purchase, the police traced the accused and arrested them from the flat just a few hours after the complaint was filed.

Clever modus operandi
The police said that the accused only targeted people living in remote countries as they thought that people abroad would not bother to complain about stolen amount as their cards would have been insured against theft. The accused also believed that it was hard for the victims to find out from where the crime was committed.