Surat: Next time while making payment with a debit or credit card to anyone, just ensure that the card is swiped on a point of sale terminal (POS) in front of you. Else a card taken away even for a few seconds could prove costly to you.Earlier fraudsters would target people only at ATM units where they copied card data and noticed the PIN while being entered on keyboard. The fraudsters now use skimmers which can copy data stored in the magnetic strip of a card at any place.Mannu Singh Rajput, 24, a resident of Mumbai, who was arrested in the city on Sunday, shocked cops by his modus operandi. Rajput, who was working as a petrol pump attendant, told police how he used to copy data from a card by first swiping it on a skimmer with him and then on POS of petrol pump when it was handed over for payment by a customer. Then he used to ask the customer to enter PIN which he somehow managed to see and write it on a paper.After stealing data of a few cards, Rajput copied it into his computer and made cloned cards using a specialized software. He then used to travel to the Diamond City to withdraw cash from ATMs using cloned cards and PINs with him. He withdrew less than Rs10,000 due to which victims in most of the cases did not register complaints, also police too did not make much of an effort to trace the accused.“A customer should use upgraded cards with chip to avoid skimming. It is easier to steal data from a magnetic strip card and not from one with an electronic chip,” a bank officer said.Local people in Sachin area alerted police when they saw a man making multiple transactions in an ATM. Police detained him and he spilled the beans during questioning.

Stay updated with all the Latest Surat headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.