An employee of Farzi Café, a pub in New Delhi’s Connaught Place, has been booked for allegedly cloning credit and debit cards of at least 13 customers, and using them to siphon off Rs 6,03,500, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday. The Delhi Police had registered a First Information Report on Tuesday against the accused, who is absconding, based on a complaint by HDFC Bank.
The police believe that the cards were cloned, as all the unwarranted transactions were made when the customers had the cards in their possession, reported The Hindu. “HDFC Bank gave us a complaint regarding cloning of debit card of their customers,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police BK Singh. “They mentioned at least 13 cases where these transactions were made.”
The bank had alerted the police about the issue in April. Based on investigations, one Mohammad Badrul Islam Barduiya was identified as a suspect. A native of Assam, Barduiya had attended to all the duped customers. The police believe he may have fled soon after their team visited the café. “The investigation is on. The arrest will soon be made,” said Deputy Commissioner Singh.
Investigation so far has revealed that the 13 customers who had been duped had all visited the café at some point. “He used to take the debit card with him on the pretext of getting the card machines and cloned it. He then used to secretly watch the customer enter the PIN number and later used that pin to withdraw more cash. He had done it 8-10 times,” said a senior police officer.
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