Fingerprints cloning gang busted in Azamgarh; one held, four on the run

LUCKNOW: In a major breakthrough, Azamgarh police busted a gang whose members used to withdraw money from account holders by cloning the fingerprints and later compromising the Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) in Azamgarh district.
The breakthrough was made with the arrest of one Rakesh Kumar on Thursday.
The police said a team was formed after several complaints were reported in the Maharajganj police station about money being withdrawn without the actual account owners making any transactions.
Giving details, Superintendent of police, Azamgarh, Triveni Singh told TOI that per RBI guidelines one can withdraw Rs 10,000 per day through AEPS services being offered by banks and few other financial companies licensed by RBI to run common service centres.
During probe it came to the fore that, the gang members used to contact common service centres that keeps micro ATMs which are authorized by banks and also other financial companies to operate as banking services delivery partners where customers can also conduct financial transactions using AEPS.
Kumar and his gang used to obtain finger prints from these centres of customers coming to do transactions using skimming devices , apparatuses and chemicals needed to clone finger print biometrics, added Singh.
"Kumar also disclosed that cloning finger print was very easy by using gelatin , temperature modulators and special chemical. He learnt this technique through a demo video avail online," Singh told TOI.
The officer further added that Kumar also said that in such operation one-time password is also not required while withdrawing money from the account by using Finger biometrics on AEPS.
Independent cyber experts added that such frauds were only possible because a proper background check is not conducted before appointing employees in such common service centres of financial operations.