The investigation into a card cloning racket, unearthed by the Bandra police this month, has revealed that the racketeers allegedly paid Rs1,000 to each waiter for sharing details,including password, of each debit or credit card of customers.

The police last week arrested six waiters who worked at restaurants in Mumbai, Pune and Thane and two ITexperts. The waiter allegedly stole credit and debit card details of 1,028 customers. Officials said IT professionals had contacted the waiters through an acquaintance in the hotel management industry.

Pandit Thackeray, senior inspector of Bandra police station, confirmed that each waiter was paid Rs1,000 for each card.

By selling credit and debit card details, each waiter earned around Rs50,000 per month, according to an officer.

Thackeray added that the duped customers had accounts in 108 banks. The police have recovered 106 skimmers devices used to obtain card details from the eight men. The accused men made these devices from the scratch and uploaded the stolen data on empty cards. The accused then withdrew money from the customers account using these cloned cards. The waiters in the beginning copied details of one or two card. As they grew confident, they began cloning 40 to 50 cards in a month, added the police officer.

Three of these waiters worked at a restaurant at Sakinaka in Andheri (East). The unsuspecting customers handed over their cards and pin code to the waiters who secretly swiped them on the skimmers. In some cases, they clandestinely saw customers punching in card pin code on the swipe machine.

The Bandra police received a complaint from Citi Bank in May which led to the racket. Apart from the 106 skimmers, the police seized a laptop and a unique software used to clone cards. The police have also seized 50 cloned cards from the accused which are rewritable.

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Card cloning racket: Waiters earned 1000 for each card they sold details of, say Mumbai cops - Hindustan Times