Delhi: Romanian held for using skimming device at ATM

Police said several complaints relating to fraudulent withdrawals from ATMs in south Delhi were received. (Representational image)

A 40-year-old Romanian man was arrested by a unit of the Delhi Police’s Cyber Crime Cell for allegedly trying to plant a skimming device inside an ATM in south Delhi’s Mehrauli, police said.

The man, Lupoi Emil, is a resident of Constanta, Romania. An ATM card cloning device, two keypads and five cards — of which two were cloned — were recovered from him. “The accused has visited India multiple times. He arrived in the second week of March this year. He, along with an associate, tried to install skimming machines, which can capture the data of ATM users and copy them onto cloned cards. He has targeted several unguarded ATMs in Delhi,” said DCP (South) Vijay Kumar.

Police said several complaints relating to fraudulent withdrawals from ATMs in south Delhi were received. Officers in plain clothes were deputed around ATM machines to watch for suspicious elements. “Our team spotted the accused taking a long time at an ATM. When questioned, the man’s conduct made the team suspicious, and he was checked,” a police officer said.

Police found ATM keypads, and when he was unable to give a satisfactory answer, the accused was taken to the nearest police station and questioned. Although he denied making any transactions from the ATM, police claimed he had made fraudulent transactions in the past.