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| Never lose sight of your credit, debit cards Oct 17, 09 |
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The next time you use your credit or debit card at a hotel or petrol bunk, make sure it does not go out of your immediate view. The reason: the city police have information that some suspects are using skimmers to copy the card details for producing fake cards.
Skimmers are electronic devices used to copy data by just swiping the victim’s card. The data gathered is copied on to a computer and later fed into the magnetic strip of a bogus card with which the fraudster often makes purchases and the victim receives the bills.
C. Sridhar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, CCB said, that in some earlier cases, the culprits used to obtain credit card issued abroad using skimmers. “Now we have information on use of skimmer in Chennai. We are investigating the matter,” he said.
The Bank Fraud wing in the CCB of the city police had booked 19 cases involving use of fake credit cards this year till October 15. Of these, seven were booked in the last 15 days. A total of 17 persons have been arrested. The accused in the recent cases were held after they attempted to use the cards amid the Deepavali shopping rush in the city. CCB is investigating into the possibility of the accused having obtained details of the cards issued in the city. However, no one has approached the police with a complaint till now.
D. Kandasamy, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Bank Fraud, said that cardholders and merchants should stay extra-cautious now.
“In hotels or other places, customers must demand to swipe their card themselves or else insist the staff to use the card in front of them. Merchants who come across customers with credit cards that seem fake, must contact the issuing bank’s round-the-clock risk control service to check for its authenticity or call the police,” he added.
The CCB is also planning to recommend to the banks to introduce a pin number that would be required to be fed into the system while swiping credit and debit cards.
source ; The Hindu 17/10/09 |
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