Category Archives: Cloning

MUSKEGON, MI Remember when talk of human cloning was a thing?

Id never given it much thought before but, yeah, it could have some scary consequences.

For instance, my wife is at her wits end taking care of me as her fourth child could you imagine her contending with another me?

Yeah, me neither.

But, you know, for just this week, I would like to explore the possibility. You see, there are two fantastic matchups on the Muskegon-area high school football docket this Friday:

Conference titles will be on the line in both games. In fact, all four teams are ranked in the top four in the state in their respective divisions.

Flying solo as an MLive Muskegon Chronicle sports reporter, sometimes tough decisions are made about which game to attend. This is one of those weeks, certainly, as both contests warrant spotlight coverage.

At the end of the day, a choice had to be made. Ill be at Sailor Stadium, excited to take in another crosstown showdown.

Ill have to miss the Oakridge-Ravenna backyard brawl. That stinks.

Its probably too late to clone another me, seeing that were within a day or so from the big game in Wolf Lake. Guess Ill just have to plant a few moles inside Russell A. Erickson Stadium and be resourceful in delivering coverage that MLive readers deserve.

On the plus side, that alternative saves my wife a bunch more heachaches.

The only thing worth duplicating, anyway, is my flawless predictions record from Week 7.

Lets give that a shot.

Last weeks record: 16-0 (100 percent)

Season record: 90-23 (79.6 percent)

Best pick last week: Grant 20, Newaygo 14. OK, so the final score prediction really wasnt all too close. But in a rivalry such as this one, it can be hard to know exactly what will happen.

Worst pick last week: Nope, not this time!

Muskegon (7-0, 4-0 OK Black Conference) at Mona Shores (6-1, 4-0), 7 p.m. Friday: The top two teams in the Muskegon area settle it on the field once again. Winner moves to the cusp of an OK Black Conference title. Not only is this THE hot ticket in town, but its become one of the red-letter rivalries in terms of statewide interest.

Last season, Mona Shores played tough and was right there until the fourth quarter, when Muskegon put away a 55-35 victory. Will it follow a similar script this time? Yeah, I could see it playing out in similar fashion.

Against two of the other big-name programs in the state earlier this season, Muskegon drilled Warren De La Salle (41-7) and Detroit King (41-18), both on the road. In Mona Shores red-letter game vs. Rockford, it got away from the Sailors (34-21).

Much stranger things have happened than Mona Shores taking down Muskegon, but its a tough ask against Cameron Martinez & Co.

Pick: Muskegon 42, Mona Shores 21

RELATED: Tale of the tape for Muskegon vs. Mona Shores, plus the video preview seen above

***

Ravenna (6-1, 6-0 WMC) at Oakridge (7-0, 6-0), 7 p.m. Friday: Its been a while since an Oakridge-Ravenna game has meant this much: Outright West Michigan Conference title on the line, winner take all. Oakridge and Ravenna have not played this late in a season since 1998. The fact that its the final week of the conference slate only adds to the drama.

The Bulldogs are seeking their first conference championship since 2001, when they shared it with Oakridge and Montague. In the years since, the Eagles and Wildcats have owned the WMC with a team like Shelby sprinkled in there.

Everybody likes to focus on offense, but both of these teams play fantastic defense. Heres to another hard-hitting nail-biter, just like the old days in the rivalry.

Pick: Oakridge 24, Ravenna 20

RELATED: Tale of the tape for Ravenna vs. Oakridge, plus the video preview seen above

***

Montague (5-2, 4-2 WMC) at Whitehall (3-4, 3-3), 7 p.m. Friday: When the two towns to the north and south of White Lake get together, it typically leads to high drama and high stakes. They are playing for The Bell, as tradition dictates, but a rarity is that neither team is contention for the West Michigan Conference title.

Still, there are playoff hopes on the line. Montague needs a win here to clinch a spot in the postseason. With Division 5 second-ranked Portland coming to town in Week 9, there are no promises the Wildcats will get it then. Meanwhile, Whitehall needs to win this week and in Week 9 vs. Montrose at Alma College for the Vikings to have a chance to join the playoff party.

Whitehall has been seriously hampered by injuries, while Montague is dealing with low roster numbers. This one could come down to sheer will and, of course, a couple bounces.

Pick: Montague 27, Whitehall 20

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Spring Lake (4-3, 3-2 OK Blue Conference) at Allendale (4-3, 3-1), 7 p.m. Friday: So, Spring Lake took some lumps from Grand Rapids Catholic Central last week. Join the club. The Cougars do that to a lot of teams.

This week presents a different challenge altogether: Owen Burk. You might say, How can one guy beat a team? Well, its not just one guy, but Burk is a very dynamic high school football player. Hes going to play at Air Force for a reason. When very good opponents like Unity Christian and Cedar Springs have trouble containing him

The Lakers need to win this week and next to assure themselves a playoff spot.

Pick: Allendale 36, Spring Lake 20

***

Muskegon Catholic Central (4-2) at Benton Harbor (4-3), 5 p.m. Friday: The Crusaders head to the southwest corner of Michigan to take on a Benton Harbor squad that, like MCC, is battling for a playoff spot.

MCC needs just one win, this week or next, to punch its ticket. With an eight-game schedule, the Crusaders need to get to five wins. Meanwhile, Benton Harbor needs two victories to assure itself a postseason spot. Aside from facing MCC, the Tigers are playing unbeaten Berrien Springs in Week 9.

In 2018, Benton Harbor traveled to Muskegon and ran away with a 41-21 victory over MCC. That was last year, however. This looks to be a toss-up.

Pick: Muskegon Catholic Central 24, Benton Harbor 22

(Games kick off at 7 p.m. Friday unless noted.)

More high school football coverage:

Vote in MLive Muskegon Player of the Week fan poll for Week 7 games

Take your pick in Week 8 Muskegon-area must-see game fan poll

Check out the Week 7 Muskegon-area Power Poll

MLive Top 50 state rankings entering Week 8

See where Muskegon sits in Week 8 national rankings

Latest AP rankings add to big week locally

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Muskegon-area Week 8 football picks: With 2 blockbusters, cloning is appealing - MLive.com

A bonkers conspiracy that heralded rapper Eminem, 47, died years ago and is actually now a clone has been further fuelled with the release of an artist's sensational Cloned Rapperssong.

The outrageous theory suggests that, in 2006, the Lose Yourself superstar died and was replaced by an android.

Among the supposed evidence that conspiracy theorists use is footage of Eminem glitching on a live ESPN report back in 2013.

It exploded once again in 2016 when rapper B.o.B posted a series of cryptic tweets claiming human cloning had been around for years.

And now, "conclusive proof" has emerged with the release of Tom MacDonald's Cloned Rappers music video.

He claims in his song that the "Illuminati took bone samples to clone rappers" and then put the real beings in prison to "silence their vision".

"If they can't control you they erase the old you," he continues, before listing some of the names that have been cloned.

"They cloned Gucci, cloned Kodiak, cloned Eminem, he ain't rapped since Encore, know that."

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The setting of the music video looks like a scene straight out of Frankenstein adding to the sense of "clones" being created in a lab.

The camera also cuts to showing newspaper cut-outs of Tom supposedly being in a car crash hinting that he had been brought back to life as a clone just like the bizarre Eminem conspiracy.

More than 1million people have seen the video since it was posted to YouTube on September 27.

He looks different plus he's been gone too long especially before kill shot, one commented.

Another said: Its true, Eminem is not the same.

A third agreed, saying: All this has been a move for a long time...I just hope the ignorant will finally understand.

But some viewers had a different interpretation of the lyrics, suggesting it was, in fact, metaphorical for rappers now not being able to express themselves.

They claimed Tom was actually suggesting the music industry has forced them to conform to what sells money cloning them.

Read more:

Eminem 'cloned' conspiracy explodes after rapper releases track 'exposing theory' - Daily Star

UPDATE - 9to5Mac has updated its original post. The user has remembered that they did use their card's virtual number online when making a non-Apple Pay payment via a school website. It's possible that website was compromised. Our original post follows.

Keeping credit card users safe isn't an easy job, something Apple Card partner Goldman Sachs should already know. But now Apple is learning it, too. We've already heard of someone having their titanium Apple Card cloned, but now someone else has been a victim of fraud. But they've never used their card, so it can't have been skimmed.

Normally when a credit card is cloned it's because it was skimmed during a payment. If you give your card to someone and they take it out of sight, they could be skimming it. Not every time, obviously, but that's how easily it can happen. Once they have your card details they create a cloned card and go to town using it.

But 9to5Mac has heard of someone who has experienced fraud despite having never used their physical card. Which means it can't have been skimmed. So how did someone get his card details?

The story goes that the person found an Apple Card trasnsaction from Chicago, despite him living on the West Coast. So again, how did someone get his card details?

When the card owner asked Apple (it's possible he was forwarded to a Goldman Sachs representative) the respose was one of confusion rather than being able to offer any answers.

I'm not entirely sure how this happens. My team is in charge of taking care of unrecognized transactions and we can only see where the transaction was made and what card was used, details of that sort.

There was at least a crumb of comfort. "Not only is it extremely hard to get a hold of credit card information, but if somehow there are fraudulent charges, you will never be held responsible for unauthorized transactions on Apple Card," the support agent went on to say.

It's currently unknown exactly what went on here. Banks have previously had issues with support teams selling data to crooks for the purpose of card cloning and that can't be ruled out here. It's highly unlikely an Apple Pay transaction was compromised, too. Even if it was, Apple generates a unique authentication code for each transaction which means the details couldn't be used a second time anyway.

So for the third time, how did someone get this person's card details?

Read this article:

Apple Card user says they were a victim of fraud despite never using their physical card - iMore

Intact Genomics, a St. Louis, Missouri based biotechnology company, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a new patent of Fungal Artificial Chromosomes, Compositions, Methods and Uses Therefor (U.S. Patent No. 10,337,019) to Intact Genomics. The patent covers Fungal artificial chromosome (FAC) vectors which can be replicated in a bacterial or a fungal host and can comprise an insert of heterologous DNA up to 300-500 kilobases into a fungal genome. The insert sequence can be modified by homologous recombination. Fungal artificial chromosome (FAC) vectors also can be a plasmid comprising bacterial and fungal origins of replication, as well as bacterial and fungal selection marker genes. Additionally, the patent discloses the methods of generating plasmid libraries including vectors comprising intact SM gene clusters.

Fungi are one of the most important groups of organisms on the planet. They play important roles in many aspects of human life, including medicine, food, and farming. The FAC technology can capture large DNA fragments and shuttle them into advanced or engineered fungal hosts for heterologous expression. This enables robust production and rapid identification of fungal secondary metabolite compounds. Said Chengcang Charles Wu, PhD, who is the inventor of this technology and the main inventor of the Artificial Plant Mini-chromosomes (WO 2007/137114). This proprietary technology can be used in our drug discovery research, as well as licensed to companies across pharmaceutical, agricultural and environmental sectors.

We are extremely pleased with continued development of large DNA fragment and metagenomic technologies. The issuance of this patent will strengthen our intellectual property protection of our core technologies. Said Dr. Chengcang Wu who is a world-renowned expert and the founder and CEO of Intact Genomics.

About Intact Genomics, Inc.

Intact Genomics is a worldwide leader in large DNA fragment cloning and metagenomics technologies. The company continuously focuses on genomic technology innovation by applying large DNA fragment cloning related proprietary technologies in metagenomic research to develop new solutions for natural product-enzyme discovery, agricultural research, and environmental protection. Intact Genomics also provides high-quality life science products and large DNA fragment cloning related services to help scientists explore the genome structure and function of microorganisms, plants, and animal species.

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Intact Genomics Awarded the Patent of Fungal Artificial Chromosome Technologies - Suburban Journals

Fans have long been speculating about whether or not Rey will be revealed to be Emperor Palpatines clone in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, especially after the latest trailer showed Dark Rey wielding a rad new red lightsaber. Now, a bold new theory explains that Palpatine actually created more than one clone, including himself. Confused? Lets dive in.

Warning! Speculative spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker below.

Redditor u/Mr_Berger1 theorizes that the Palpatine who died in The Return of the Jedi was actually a clone, leaving the real Palps to roam the outer regions of the galaxy to continue his work. However, since the former emperor wouldve probably made backups of his backups, he may have created more than one clone to help execute every aspect of his plan.

Thats right, in a strange twist, Palpatine, Supreme Leader Snoke, and Rey could all be clones of the original emperor. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, yes and no. Theres no telling how far Episode IX will go in terms of cloning one theory even proposed that the entire Sith Fleet are clones of Jango Fett but this theory might be onto something.

Why would Palpatine clone himself, though? Think about what the Galactic Empire looked like prior to his demise. They were losing to a puny Rebellion that had already destroyed one Death Star and was about to blow up a second one. Smelling weakness among his own ranks, Palpatine mightve wanted to purge the weaker people in the Empire, leaving the strong to inherit the First Order, as this theory argues.

And why not? Palps couldve absolutely tricked the empire into thinking he was gone, let everyone fall into a false sense of security before returning stronger than ever.

It is probable that the first clone of Palpatine wasnt perfect, this would be Snoke, just another clone pawn to fool everyone while Palpatine builds up the first order, u/Mr_Berger1 writes, potentially explaining the Supreme Leaders scarred appearance in The Last Jedi.

It sounds like its reaching a bit, right? But, if were to look back on Snokes history (that we admittedly dont know much about) and the knowledge and power hes amassed between the downfall of the Galactic Empire and the rise of the First Order, its not outside the realm of possibility to think that hes just a pawn in Palps plan. After all, its long been speculated that Snoke wasnt working on his own and that he either knew Palpatine prior to his death or that hes been playing host to Palps essence the whole time.

Finally, the theory claims that Rey is a Palpatine and was brought into the world for the express purpose to stamp out the Skywalker bloodline. Once this is done, she will probably be hunted down and destroyed.

Recent leaks claiming that Rey could be Palpatines granddaughter are one thing, but the idea that the Emperor created her in a lab using his own DNA expressly to destroy the Skywalker is a bridge too far even for us.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters December 20, 2019.

See the article here:

'Star Wars 9' theory explains Snoke, Rey, and Palps return all at once - Inverse

RACQ said criminals were duplicating number plates to get away with racking up huge toll bills, fines and even stealing petrol.

RACQs Russell Manning said there were even reports thieves were going to second-hand car yards to find legally registered plates to replicate.

Its concerning just how easily this can happen. Back in the day, thieves used to simply steal the number plate. But with the advances in technology they dont even have to touch the car to get away with it, Mr Manning said.

Whats worrying for owners with plate cloning is you dont know about it until the fines start rolling in.

It begs the question whether it is time we reconsidered number plates being the only form of identification for your vehicle for police and toll road operators.

We may be at the time where we have to become more sophisticated and look at technological identifiers like electronic vehicle tags.

Mr Manning urged anyone who received a fine or infringement notice and did not believe it was their vehicle to alert the authorities.

No one wants to be caught out with a fine and blemish on their permanent record for a crime they didnt commit.

Go here to see the original:

Number plate cloning how you could get stung - RACQ Live

Car hoons are duplicating numberplates to get away with racking up huge toll bills, fines and even stealing petrol.

Authorities have warned law-abiding motorists of the growing scourge and have issued advice to those stung by the scam for what to do.

Melbourne car yard worker Peter Savige said the business had received a number of toll invoices from Eastlink and Citylink, despite knowing the vehicle in question had not left the premises.

He also received parking fines and a red light infringement.

Confused, Mr Savige downloaded the road safety camera images associated with the fines.

"I realised that the number plate on the vehicle, even though it was the same numerals and numbers, it wasn't even the same colour as the plate on our car," he told A Current Affair.

Mr Savige said he had now cancelled the number plate.

Geoff Gwilym from the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce said it was "disappointing" the innocent parties had to go to the effort of proving the car in question wasn't theirs.

"The way that cloning works is that somebody sees a car and it's like the car that they've got or they look on the internet for a similar car, and they basically copy the numberplate and put it on their car," he said.

Criminals can use websites to create fake number plates for a small fee, or even visit novelty stores to buy fake plates on the spot.

A Current Affair was able to have plates made in about 10 minutes, for less than $30.

The NRMA's Peter Khoury said such stores should be regulated.

"It shouldn't be happening to start with, and that's why we want to make sure that authorities across Australia are doing everything they can to protect our rego and our identification," he said.

Mr Gwilym advised people who received a fine they were suspicious of to report it to the appropriate authority in writing, preferably in an e-mail with a receipt.

Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2017

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Crooks cloning number plates to lump innocent drivers with fines - 9news.com.au

For representational purposes

DEHRADUN: The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttarakhand police has arrested three persons for allegedly cloning ATM cards of many people and withdrawing Rs 37 lakh fraudulently from their accounts.

Rambir, Jagmohan and Sunil, who hail from Haryana, were arrested from Kolhapur in Maharashtra and brought here this evening on transit remand, STF SSP Ridhim Agarwal told reporters here.

They will be produced in a court tomorrow, she added.

Agarwal said the accused withdrew the money from the accounts of the people here last month by stealing their ATM pins and other data by fitting skimming devices and cameras at two ATMs and preparing over one hundred clones of the ATM cards.

They first did a recce of the unguarded ATMs in the city and then fitted two of them with the skimming devices and cameras to copy ATM cards of the people, she said.

The accused also jammed the keypads of all neighbouring ATMs using feviquick so that most people came to the ones fitted with the skimmer devices, the SSP said.

Agharwal said 97 cases of fraudulent withdrawals of Rs 37 lakh were registered at different police stations in the city.

A co-accused woman, Anil Kumari, had been arrested in connection with the fraud, earlier, she said.

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Three arrested in Uttarakhand for withdrawing Rs 37 lakh by cloning ... - The New Indian Express

My style tends towards sleek, tailored clothing but this blouse with its many circular flounces was one I had to try. The inspiration is from Alexander McQueens RTW line and retailed for over $1000. Wonderful look for summer that I could definitely do for less.

I draped a slim fitting princess line top using my body double dress form. It extends to the high hip line here so I can play with the placement of the hem flounce.

An interesting technical point is that these are known as flounces, not circular ruffles. In the garment industry, a ruffle by definition has the excess fullness gathered into a seam while the fullness of a flounce comes from the curved flare of the fabric.

The flounce pattern is created by drawing concentric circles. The inner circle is attached to the garment.

Drafting the flounce does require some basic math and decisions about how full you want the flounce. The left diagram shows a flounce with an inner circle of 1 inch diameter and one inch wide flounce. The circumference of the inner circle is 3.14 inches which will be the length of the seam joining to the garment. The outer edge of the flounce will be 9.42 inches. Fullness is calculated as 9.42 divided by 3.14 equals 3 or 3:1 ratio. However, imagine that you need a 6 inch long flounce. Drawing a 2 inch diameter circle surrounded by a 4 inch diameter circle creates a flounce 6.28 inches long with an outer edge 12.56 inches long. Note that the fullness has changed from 3:1 to 2:1 (12.56 divided by 6.28). If the desired fullness is 3:1, then the flounce will need to be cut using two of the smaller circles and seaming them together.

Ive drafted a 3 inch deep flounce for the lower edge of the blouse, cut a test from muslin and attached to the toile. To achieve 3:1 fullness, Ill use four sections (two back and two front).

Drafting the flounces for the neckline and center front required more complicated methods. Flounces behave differently depending upon the seam they are attached to. Vertical hanging flounces cascade down in folds. The fullness of a flounce is increased when attached to a inside curve and decreased when attached to an outside curve. The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff is a wonderful resource which more fully explains these concepts.

The neckline is an outside curve. Therefore to maintain the same appearance of fullness, the flounce at the neck was drafted with 4:1 inner to outer ratio. The math can get complicated, especially when you need to consider the length of flounce needed, width AND fullness ratio desired plus adding seam allowances. Then compound all this with varying width flounces for the center front and armholes. Ive devised a relatively simple way to draft all this.

Either buy a tablet of graph paper or print some out. There are free internet sources for printing all sizes of graph paper. I likeMath-Drills.com. Search for graph paper and print out a few sheets of 1/4 inch size. Metric users try 0.5 cm; I found the 1 cm. size just a bit too large to produce smooth curves using my method.

Measure the length of the seam the flounce will be attached to. Measure the SEAM LINE, not the cut edge. All drafting is done referencing the seam line; seam allowances are added afterwards. Ill show the back neck: seam line from CB to shoulder seam is 3.5 inches. 4:1 fullness is desired and 1.75 wide flounce so Ill cut and tape together a strip of graph paper 1.75 inches by 14 inches (3.5 times 4).

Cut along every fourth line leaving a tiny bit attached at one long edge. If you cut through, its no problem to just tape it together. Overlap the sections so there are four blocks at one edge and one block at the other edge.

The inside edge wont line up perfectly but I just eyeball it. You can also draw in a line to help. Tape the sections in place as you go. This is what the pattern will look like. Its very clear that there is a 4:1 ratio of inner to outer length. Also it isnt a complete circle which is good as there is space to add seam allowances.

The pattern can be cleaned up by using it as a gauge to draw circles with a compass. Use the end points on the outer circle and connect to the center for symmetrical seam lines. I find this much, much easier than trying to mathematically calculate the dimensions of the inner circle, outer circle, width of flounce, maintain fullness ratio. With all these variables, I wound up with a partial circle and calculating the percentage needed of such circles produces some dizzying math.

The graph paper method greatly simplifies creating the long cascading flounce along the center front. If you draft a flounce and trim off the outer edge to create a flounce narrower at one end, the proportion of fullness changes.

Here is a flounce which gets narrower at one end. I trimmed off the outer edge of a 3:1 circle. If you count the squares, it goes from a 3:1 fullness to a 2:1 fullness. This may be what you want, but what if you want to maintain the same fullness the entire length?

Heres how I created the center front flounce. Measure from center front to the desired length. After some experimentation, I decided 3:1 was a good fullness. Create a strip of graph paper 3 times the finished length by the wider width. Draw a sloping line from wide point to narrow point.

Trim off the paper above the sloped line. Cut along every third square and overlap to create a curved pattern.

The pattern will spiral over itself. Keep going and let it overlap. It will be divided into sections later.

My front flounce needed to be divided into two sections to avoid the pieces overlapping. Deciding where to place the cuts is a trial and error process. You want a few seams as possible and the seams need to be placed where they are inconspicuous.

It may take several muslin trials to get seams where you want them. Trace off your master pattern so it is intact in case your first seams arent where you want them. Since the diameter of the circle is constantly changing along the length of the flounce the circles will turn into ellipses. Here is the lower section of my front flounce. Ive left room for tiny seam allowances to join to the upper flounce section.

My pattern traced off to pattern paper. Label everything as the pieces will get VERY confusing. I also keep my graph paper models intact just in case I need them.

The armseye flounce is drafted in the same way. I did experiment with a 5:1 fullness but felt it too much and ultimately went back to the 3:1 proportion. Some experimentation is necessary as every flounce will behave differently depending on its width and placement. The fullness is removed under the arm at the side seam.

Since this design is symmetrical, the toile is only of the right side. Ive also hemmed the center front flounce as the drape of flounces does change with the edge finish used. Drape flounces in a fabric similar to the fashion fabric as a silk chiffon will behave much differently than a crisp cotton. I will use a woven textured white cotton that looks almost the same on both sides as the wrong side of the fabric will show on this. Blouse is in production for the next post.

The rest is here:

Cloning Couture | Exploring the world of couture sewing

Written by Chandan Haygunde , Sushant Kulkarni | Pune | Published:August 17, 2017 8:08 am Officials of the Cyber Crime Cell with the arrested accused.

THE Cyber Crime Cell of the Pune City Police has arrested a Nigerian man who is allegedly the key accused in a racket to clone debit and credit cards. Police have identified the accused as Eremhen Smart (33), a resident of Supragiri College area in Bengaluru. Police have also arrested his alleged aide Irshad Sattar Solanki (28), a resident of Bandrekar Wadi in Jogeshwari, Mumbai.

Last month, police had arrested three Nigerian men identified as Ogbehase Fortune, Bashar Dakin Gari Usman and Ifeanyi Mike Bbaeze while investigating a case registered with the Khadki police station, in which Rs 67,000 was withdrawn from a persons bank account without his knowledge. While some money was withdrawn from an ATM, the rest of the money was transferred to another bank account.

A team led by Inspector Manish Zende of the Cyber Crime Cell zeroed in on a person seen in the camera footage from the ATM kiosk. Police also got details of the account to which the money was transferred, and it was revealed that the account had been used to withdraw cash from other ATM kiosks.

Following leads obtained during the investigation, police arrested Nigerian national Fortune from Pimple Gurav, and his alleged aides Usman and Mbaeze. Police also recovered eight cell phones, 20 debit cards and eight blocked cards that had been cloned, Internet dongles, pen drives and a laptop from the trio.

Soon, police launched a search for the key accused Smart who was found to be changing his locations frequently. On August 10, police laid a trap and arrested Smart in Bengaluru. They recovered four cell phones, two laptops and Rs 1.65 lakh in cash from him.

On August 14, police arrested Smarts aide Irshad Solanki, who allegedly helped him withdraw money from ATMs and arranged bank accounts, in which the money was transferred using cloned debit and credit cards.

A court has remanded the duo to police custody till August 17 for further investigation.

We are now searching for four more persons, all Nigerian nationals, involved in this racket. We are also looking for a Mumbai-based person who helped the accused commit the crimes, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crime Cell, Sudhir Hiremath, during a press conference on Wednesday.

Hiremath said that the same gang of Nigerians had committed 11 crimes in Bengaluru and four in Pune. The four cases in Pune are registered at police stations in Khadki, Chinchwad and Hinjewadi

The investigation revealed that Smart ordered ATM card readers and debit card writer machines online and used them to clone the debit and credit cards.

Police said the accused used skimmer, an electronic device that steals the information or identity of the card. Skimmers are mounted in front of the slot in ATM machines where the card is inserted. So, while the user thinks he is inserting the card in the slot, the card is also passing through the skimmer and details of the debit or credit card is being stolen.

The accused then used pinhole or spy cameras installed in ATMs to learn the customers PIN number, said police, adding that at times, they also stood behind the customer when the PIN was being typed. The stolen information is then written on other cards and the card is cloned. The customer gets to know of the fraud only when the money is withdrawn, said police. However, police have not recovered any skimmer from Smart and the other accused arrested in the case. Police suspect that the accused have destroyed the skimmers.

The investigation has revealed that the gang had obtained information about several debit and credit cards in Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, parts of Tamil Nadu and Goa, said police. The accused allegedly made cloned cards and used it to withdraw and transfer money to different bank accounts. Key accused is a science graduate

DCP Hiremath said Smart, the key accused, is a Computer Science graduate who had come to India on a medical visa in 2014. He extended his visa later, but it expired in 2016. He was arrested by Bengaluru police in January, but was released on bail. According to police, Smart enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, and he also used to send some money to Nigeria through middlemen.

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Cloning of debit, credit cards: Key accused held, search on for 4 ... - The Indian Express