Your cloned card is being swiped abroad

NEW DELHI: Fraudsters cloning debit cards seem to be conducting their transactions abroad to avoid detection. In a recent case, a home ministry official approached the Delhi Police with a complaint in which her card was found to be cloned and used at an apparel store in the US. The transactions too were made in US dollars.

In the complaint at Parliament Street police station, the MHA official alleged that she got to know about the incident on June 7, when she found several messages of transactions at different US-based stores between 1.35am and 2.09am. A few alerts and OTPs for the transactions were also sent to her mobile number. The transactions were worth Rs 67,000. The complainant told police that she could not block the transactions since they happened late at night.

She also said that after a few transactions, the bank might have realised that her security details were compromised and had initiated a process of blocking her card. The card was temporarily blocked for a few minutes after this. The woman said that even after this, the crooks had tried to withdraw more money from her account due to which she had received a few messages asking for permission for transactions.


“I came to know about the transactions in the morning. I had my card and phone with me all this time,” she said in her complaint. She said that her last transaction was with her mobile phone service provider and a shop in Connaught Place where she had used her card.

Police suspect that the fraudsters might be using a malware to gather card details that were then used to create a virtual card for online transactions.

Usually, crooks use a device called the skimmer that is fitted to a card swiping machine and which copies the card details while it is being swiped and stores it in an internal memory unit. The details can be used for online transactions. Police officers said that such devises are available for Rs 7,000 and are imported from China.