Two youths, including a class fifth passout, allegedly siphoned off lakhs of rupees by recharging online Metro Travel Cards using fraudulently obtained credit card details and then redeeming them for cash from DMRC counters.
The duo -- R Balaji (19) and Bala Sunder (29), who has studied only till class fifth -- came under police radar after SBI Cards and Payment Services Private Limited reported a matter that it has received a number of complaints from their credit card holders that they had not made any online transactions for Metro cards.
During investigation, it was found that three Metro Travel Cards had been recharged by fraudulently using a SBI card details, police said.
"Following this, the DMRC staff was alerted to keep a tab on the three Metro cards. Finally, R Balaji was apprehended at the gate of Tilak Nagar Metro Station on Friday when he came to redeem a card," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railways) Sanjay Bhatia said.
On Balaji's disclosure, his associate Bala Sunder was arrested and two metro cards, which were also recharged by fraudulently using the credit card details, were recovered from his possession, said Bhatia.
Balaji was working as a verifier in a call centre while Sunder, who has studied only till class fifth, had worked in different call centres for two years and was currently unemployed.
During interrogation, Sunder told police that he used to collect the vital details of the SBI card holders like card numbers, expiry date, C.V.V. Code and one time password (OTP) from the card holders by calling them from Call Centres on the pretext of selling them their products.
He then purchased Metro Travel Cards for Rs 100 and recharged them online up to the maximum limit of Rs 1,000 with the details of SBI Card holders obtained fraudulently.
He would then redeem the total value of the card from DMRC counters either himself or through his associate, police said.
In this process the two had siphoned off lakhs of rupees from the accounts of several SBI card holders. Investigation is being conducted to ascertain the total amount of fraud.
