This story is from November 14, 2018

Cyber criminals striking in prominent localities of Lucknow

Cyber criminals striking in prominent localities of Lucknow
Representative image
LUCKNOW: It’s not only the surge in cyber crime and card cloning cases in the city that is unsettling police.
An analysis of the cyber crime cases in the city reveals a strange pattern which has left police officials puzzled as it shows that criminals target one specific area at a time before moving to another.
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The trend was noticed when 40 persons were duped through card cloning in Vibhutikhand in June, then 30 complaints came in a short span in Krishnanagar during September-October and now 18 people have so far been duped in Gomtinagar.

In between also, there was sudden rise in complaints from Indiranagar and nearby areas.
The total number of such complaints filed with police this year has risen to 354, showing a steep rise of 80% cases over last year.
Police investigators have been noticing the specific strike patterns but have so far not been able to come up with a strategy to counter them.
This also explains why police could only crack 130 cases and are still clueless in 224 cases that remain unsolved .

The cyber cell of Lucknow police made eight arrests and cracked several cases of ATM tampering while the STF arrested 12 accused from Lucknow and surrounding districts in 2018.
Cyber cell nodal officer Abhay Mishra said, “We got the money of over 200 customers recovered after they were duped in card cloning cases. In some cases, ATMs in specific localities of Vibhutikhand and Krishnanagar were found tampered. We had checked CCTVs of over 300 ATMs in the city and then made arrests.”
The shift in strikes from Vibhutikhand to Krishnanagar and then again to Gomtinagar is also under probe. “Prima facie, we have reached to the conclusion that the ATMs which are not much used or are located in isolated spots like in Makdoompur, Chinhat, Vibhutikhand and Badlikheda in Krishnanagar were found tampered,” added Mishra.
However, police could not find out how customers who said that they never used their cards after getting it from banks were also duped.
“It is not easy to trace card cloning incidents; we have asked some complainants to provide their bank statements having details of transactions in last one year. The probe is still under way. In many cases, the transactions were done through cloned cards in NCR, Mumbai and even in the UK,” added Mishra.
STF cyber officials said that national capital region is the nursery of card cloning and other cyber fraud training. The region is also a hub from where devices like card skimmers, pin-hole cameras, and blank magnetic cards can be bought at cheap rates.
SHO Gomtinagar Triloki Nath Singh said that police have collected details of the transactions carried out by 18 bank customers duped in the last six months and probe is under way.
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