LAHORE – Two ATM skimmers were caught red-handed on Tuesday from Jhelum’sShandar Chowk while trying to withdraw money using stolen and tampered ATMcards, police said.According to the police the two suspects, who are allegedly part of abigger gang, belong to Shakkarhgarh and Narowal, respectively, and werefound in possession of stolen ATM cards, gloves and Rs160,000 in cash.
A case was registered against the suspects at the City police station wherethey are currently being interrogated, Station House Officer Malik Asiftold.
Police said a policeman who was in the vicinity of the bank becamesuspicious and informed the closest police station about them.
On the rise in recent days, the incidents of ATM skimming first appeared tohave surfaced in the country in 2016. The criminals used skimmers tocapture banking data off debit and credit cards.
Skimmers are physical devices that are installed over the actual ATM cardslots that read the data of the magnetic strips.
Incidents of skimming seem to have become more frequent and widespreadsince then taking place in Rawalpindi and Azad Jammu and Kashmir ─ with abank confirming in December 2017 that over Rs10 million had been stolenfrom 559 of its accounts.
A bank executive told that transactions had been traced to Indonesia,China, and other countries.
Several foreigners have been arrested for allegedly stealing data frombanks using skimming devices at ATM facilities.