Category Archives: Cloning

The second topic being discussed at the Mobile money and Digital payments conference at Meikles hotel is discussing Cloning, Counterfeiting and Fraud in mobile money and digital payments. The discussion was kick started by a presentation from Jaqueline Malaba, the business development manager at Visa Card.

Her discussion touched on how digital payments are more accessible now since 4.9 Billion devices were reported to be connected in 2015. She also shared how its estimated that around 25 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020. The talk then progressed to show how security and innovation produce a complicated situation.

With the rise in the number of different payment methods people can use, how can people stay secure while transacting online? She shared some of the techniques that could be used, for example, not giving out too much personal information on social media and also not directly entering your card details online for transactions. A safer method according to her would be to use a different platform like PayPal and then link your card to that platform.

In this case, youd then use your PayPal details to make an online payment and protect your card details. After her presentation, the panelists then started to discuss more on this topic and what things are happening within the digital payments ecosystem. Something that came out was the fact that very few people are aware of how things are happening when they transact using plastic or mobile money. Due to not having enough information, people can be hacked easily as they dont know how to protect themselves.

The discussion then pointed out how our cards work, which methods are safer and how to increase safety. There are currently 2 types of cards that we are familiar with locally. The first one is the good old card with a black strip at the back which uses a magnetic strip for transactions. This type of debit card is not that safe as most of your information is stored on that strip and hackers can use devices called skimmers to obtain that information. After obtaining that information they can then sell it or use it to make fraud payments.

This vulnerability has been known worldwide for sometime and recently, weve started to see some local banks stopping to use such type of cards. The other type of card which is safer than the previous one is called an EMV card. It is the one that some local banks are migrating to as it uses a chip card technology to process payments. The chip is encrypted and thus hackers cant easily steal your information or clone your card.

As the discussion went on, someone in the audience outlined that they once processed a payment using that card without actually having to enter their pin number. Just like what Jacqueline outlined earlier, innovation + security = complicated. Authur Matsaudza from Steward Bank, then explained how this was possible. In a nutshell, there are two types of transactions: card present transaction and card not present transaction.

The first one requires you to enter your pin while the other one can work without your pin. The second one can work without a pin because the card has a card number at the front and a second card verification value at the back. Using these two pieces of information, a transaction can be processed if theyre entered into a point of sale machine or online.

Upon these revelations, a suggestion given to stay safe when transacting was to use what the finance sector calls3D authentication. This is when your bank, your card and the receivers bank work together to make sure that the transaction was authorized by you. So each time a transaction has to be processed, a one time pin has to be sent to you.

Other measures offered where to never give a waiter at a restaurant or anyone else your card for them to process the payment especially if you have the EMV card due to the reason outlined above. Banks still have to improve the safety of transacting online or even physically using their cards. More importantly, they should educate their customers on what can actually happen to make them vulnerable and how they can secure themselves.

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Cloning, Counterfeiting and Fraud in digital payments what to know to stay safe - Technology Zimbabwe

Abaco Barb horses on Great Abaco Island. The breed is now extinct. Arnd Bronkhorst

An impending storm darkens the sky above the splintered canopy of Caribbean pines. Milanne Mimi Rehor points out plants that once sustained the herd of wild horses that inhabited this limestone crescent in the northern Bahamas until just two years ago. Palm fronds. They ate the palms, and briars, and of course the grass, she says, and then nods toward a shiny green tree on the edge of the road. Also this. Dont brush up against this. Itll give you blisters. Poisonwood. But after fires, the horses used to eat this, too, once the oils burned off.

Equines long roamed the forests that blanket Great Abaco Island, but the last horse died in 2015, marking the extinction of a historically and genetically significant sub-breed of the threatened Colonial Spanish Horse. The Abaco Barb, like most feral equines, was compact and sturdy thanks to generations of surviving in the wild. The horses stood about 13.2 to 14.2 hands (54 to 58 inches) at the withers and each weighed an average of 800 pounds. Their feet were hard and well-shaped from trekking across the islands rocky surface in search of food.

However, unlike most other wild horses in the Americas, the Abaco Barb spent generations in geographic isolation. According to equine geneticist Gus Cothran, who analyzed the DNA of 22 Abaco Barbs for Rehor in the 1990s, the horses were little changed from those brought across the Atlantic more than five-hundred years ago.

About half were blue-eyed splash white pintos, with belts and bonnets of white thrown against a brown hair base. Others were roans, with ivory hairs running throughout mahogany or copper coats, giving them a faded appearance. Most were gaited, meaning that in addition to the four types of movements most horses use (walk, trot, canter, and gallop), they had the capacity for very smooth lateral gaits in which both legs on each side move in unison. Similar movements are seen in other horses with old roots, including Paso Finos, but not in more modern Spanish breeds.

Strike up a conversation with Great Abaco Islands long-time residents and many have childhood memories of spotting the horses during family road trips. Theyre also likely to have a theory about why they disappeared. Though the Abaco Barb thrived on the island for generations, beginning in the 1960s, human actions and environmental changes weakened the herd and ultimately led to its demise. As Rehor, Director of the Wild Horses of Abaco Preservation Society, fights to bring the animals back from extinction, shes highlighting their contentious history and uncertain future.

Nobody knows how or when the horses first came to the Abaco Islands. One story claims they swam ashore, survivors of the frequent 16th-century shipwrecks that fed the archipelagos salvage-based economy. A second tale suggests that Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution brought their horses with them to the island. Still another, the one that Rehor favors, traces the horses to the islands 19th-century logging operations, when companies imported equines from Cuba to haul lumber and later turned them loose.

According to Cothran, the genes indicate that any of these tales could be the reality. What we [had] there on Abaco is the old actual colonial introduced horse rather than a more modernly introduced Spanish horse, Cothran says. Such a clear link to the equines that were introduced to the Americas in the 15th century is rare. Most modern sub-breeds of the Colonial Spanish Horse have long interbred with released stock horses.

Though their entire genome has yet to be sequenced, the Abaco Barbs rare profile could hold useful information particularly if you consider whats going on ecologically. Perhaps you have some genes that have value in the future that would not exist anywhere else, Cothran says, referring to climate change.

From a scientific perspective, thats what makes their disappearance such a tragedy.

The Abaco Barbs genetic significance is a key factor behind Rehors mission to clone Nunki, the lone survivor who died in 2015, and attempt to re-introduce the herd. But to Rehor, who watched over the herd and has fought for their interests since 1992, theres a social justification as well. There was here a piece of history. Various events destroyed that history, she says.

In the 1960s, a logging company cut a road through Abacos pine forests, running the length of the island, to harvest large quantities of pulpwood. This simultaneously gave local hunters increased access to remote parts of the island and destroyed the horses habitat. The hunters likely shot the horses in addition to the wild pigs that were their main target, and their dogs frequently killed foals.

But humans had an even darker role in the first major assault on the Abaco Barb herd. Specific dates remain hard to pin down, but sometime in the 1960s, an unattended child tried climbing atop one of the horses, but was kicked and killed. Angry townspeople began killing the horses on sight, running the animals down on roads and shooting them in the pine forest. Nobody knows exactly how many horses were killed, but the herd was effectively culled. In the middle of the 20th century, estimates placed the herd at 200 individuals. By the close of the 1960s, only three remained.

Former Senator and MP Edison Key told Rehor he learned of the slaughter in the early 1970s when, while clearing land for a ranch called Bahama Star Farm, he came across horse carcasses. With the help of his friend and brother-in-law, he moved the remaining three horses onto the property to rebuild their ranks.

Once the herd reached 12 horses, they were again released in the nearby pine forest, where they seemed to flourish despite severe genetic bottlenecking. By the time Rehor anchored her wooden sailboat off the coast of the Abacos in 1992, they had bounced back to about 30 individuals. However, by 1997, only 16 remained. Though nobody can confirm why the horses began disappearing again, local lore suggests the animals were being hunted for both sport and food.

In 1999, Hurricane Floyd dealt what might have been the final blow, destroying the forest understory that had supported the Abaco horses for so long. In search of food, the horses found their way back to Bahama Star Farm, which had been converted into a citrus orchard. Irrigation and crop-dusting gave the horses a new diet of pesticides and high sugar grasses which, combined with a reduced need to move about looking for food, led to a host of health and reproductive problems.

Around 2004, it became clear the herd wouldnt return to the forest on its own, so Rehor and the local government moved them to a fenced-in parcel among the pines. The government granted 3,800 acres for the horses, but at any given time, they only roamed a portioninitially 200 acres, then increased to 1,000 acresof that area. The population never recovered, and when Nunki died in 2015, the breed was gone.

Originally from the U.S., Rehor decided to turn a visit to the Abacos into a permanent move upon learning of the Abaco Barb. The avid sailor and lifelong horse lover spent the next 23 years working to get the herd the attention and protection it deserved. For several years she simply observed and photographed the horses, but in response to their 1997 decline, she founded the Wild Horses of Abaco Preservation Society. In addition to partnering with local vets and trying to bring in farriers and veterinarians from the United States to help address the horses growing health problems, Rehor led the effort to have their DNA analyzed.

She also had the foresight to preserve cells from Nunki, sending them to ViaGen, a Texas-based laboratory, in the hopes that one day cloning could help revive the herd. Since no cloneable tissue remains from Abaco stallions, Rehors plan is to make two clones of Nunki and breed them to a similar stallion in an effort to preserve at least some of the rare genes Cothran found in his analysis and to return horses to the island.

Rehor argues humans owe the Abaco Barb at least this effort, citing the succession of aforementioned human and natural events for the herds demise. Echoing the larger debate over de-extinction at times, some wonder whether the project is worth the considerable funding and human efforts it will require, and question Rehors competence as a steward. The government of the Bahamas has long been stretched thin when it comes to caring for the horses, and other wildlife and environmental effortsthose in the interest of indigenous flora and faunatake priority.

[Mimi always] had a real interest in the well-being of the horses, says David Knowles of the nonprofit Bahamas National Trust, which manages Bahamian national parks. My question at the time was whether she was qualified. We tried to get our vets to work with the horses, but we were stretched thin. Personally, I think it was a tragedy that we lost them all.

Today, Rehor still fights to maintain her vision of returning Abaco Barbs to their island via cloning. Nunkis cells have been cultured in anticipation of the cloning process and are being stored at ViaGen labs, as researchers await a go-ahead from Rehor. But funding has dwindled and, despite approval from the federal government, she is tired and frustrated. They say that one door closes [and another one opens], she says, shuffling a pink Croc-clad foot in the dirt. Aint nothin openin. Im getting tired. She wonders if she should abandon it all. After all, she notes, the genes are safe.

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The Extinct Horses of Great Abaco Island May Live Again - Atlas Obscura

A vice president (human resource) of global electronics giant, LG, has filed a complaint with the Noida police that his phone sim has allegedly been cloned and he was receiving more than 250 international calls every day on his number. He also claimed that somebody stole Rs 6 lakh from his credit cards.

Police said the complainant, Subrato Mukherjee, 57, a resident of Noida Sector 44, has been receiving calls since June 27. The calls were suspected to be made from Bhutan, Russia, and some African countries. The calls allegedly continued for weeks.

Mukherjee took up the matter with his mobile phone service provider. They put his SIM card on surveillance through department of telecommunications (DoT). Mukherjee said he was alarmed when his credit card statements showed several fake transactions.

I called the service provider and it took them a lot of time to check the problem. Later, they informed me my number has been cloned and I should report the matter to police. On Friday, I took up the matter with SSP Gautam Budh Nagar after which a case was registered at Sector 39 police station, he said.

Mukherjee, a retired flight lieutenant from Indian Air Force (IAF), said the accused used his card for online shopping. The statement came in the mid of July, thereafter I reported the matter to the police, he said.

He said the calls were automatic in nature and whenever he would attend a call; there was another call in waiting.

Senior superintendent of police Love Kumar said, Prima facie, it seems the accused have cloned the credit cards and Mukherjees phone SIM. This has been done to ensure they get the one-time password for required transactions.

He said that a case was registered at Sector 39 police station. The Cyber Cell has been also asked to check the details of hacking and cloning, SSP Kumar said.

The matter has been reported to the cell phone providers and the private banks, the SSP said.

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LG vice president's phone SIM and credit cards cloned, duped of Rs 6 lakh - Hindustan Times

The global competent cells market is projected to reach USD 2.22 Billion by 2022 from USD 1.37 Billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 10.2%. The advancements in molecular cloning research due to the emergence of new technologies and the growing commercial demand for molecular cloned products and recombinant proteins are the major driving factors for this market.

The competent cells market is segmented on the basis of type, application, and end user. On the basis of type, the competent cells market is segmented into chemically competent cells and electrocompetent cells. The chemically competent cells segment is expected to command the largest share of the global competent cells market in 2017. However, the electrocompetent cells segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Electrocompetent cells offer high transformation efficiencies, making them suitable for many molecular biology applications such as the generation of cDNA libraries or constructing gene banks.

Based on the applications of competent cells, the market is broadly segmented into cloning, protein expression, and other applications. In 2017, cloning is expected to command the largest share of this market. Increasing research on cloning driven by government support and funding is among the major factors driving market growth in this segment. The cloning application is further segmented into subcloning & routine cloning, phage display library construction, toxic/unstable DNA cloning, and high-throughput cloning.

Other applications are further subsegmented into mutagenesis, single-stranded DNA production, lentiviral vector production, and large plasmid transformation. The other applications segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This segment is primarily driven by the increasing intensity of research and technological advancements in competent cells. In addition, the growth in the genomics market will enhance research in mutagenesis, thus driving the demand for competent cells.

Companies Mentioned

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview

6 Competent Cells Market, By Type

7 Competent Cells Market, By Application

8 Competent Cells Market, By End User

9 Competent Cells Market, By Region

10 Competitive Landscape

11 Company Profiles

12 Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5qqtsc/competent_cells

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Competent Cells Market to Reach $2.2 Billion by 2022 - Analysis By Type, Application, End User & Region - PR Newswire (press release)

Franck Marionnet's family set up Al Wathba Marionnet with an Emirati partner in the UAE in 1998. Pawan Singh / The National

The date palm has been a key source of food in the Arabian Gulf for well over 5,000 years and its role in providing sustenance here shows no sign of fading.

Each year tens of thousands of people attend the Liwa Dates Festival, which runs until July 29, a vivid demonstration that dates remain as important a commodity as ever.

With more than 40 million date palms, the UAE is a key centre for the production of the fruit but it is also heavily involved in cloning date palms by tissue culture.

While there are other ways of propagating date palms, only sophisticated laboratory techniques can produce the tens of thousands of genetically identical plants needed by the date-growing industry each year.

Among the few companies able to propagate date palms on an industrial scale is Al Wathba Marionnet, an Emirati-French company with headquarters in Abu Dhabi and with tissue-culture laboratories and greenhouses at Al Khazna, between the capital and Al Ain.

Tissue culture will get rid of any disease and give you the capability to produce in high quantities; theres no other choice, said Franck Marionnet, the companys general manager.

Other companies involved in tissue culturing date palms are Green Coast Nurseries in Fujairah, which collaborates with a UK company, Date Palm Developments, which has tissue-culture laboratories in south-west England.

In addition, UAE University has a date palm tissue culture laboratory that propagates date palms and sells them commercially.

The UAE is a hub for this business because, from the late 1990s, authorities offered tenders for companies to supply thousands of tissue-cultured date palms, said Buthaina Khazal, managing partner of Green Coast Nurseries. These plants were subsequently passed on to farmers.

Mrs Khazal said support from Sheikh Zayed, the UAEs Founding Father, was key to the technologys adoption. However, even now, the techniques remain problematic.

Date palms were one of the last things [scientists] worked on with tissue culture, and the most difficult, said Mrs Khazal.

Mr Marionnet described the use of tissue culture with date palms as very, very specific and something that so few laboratories are able to carry out successfully.

So many started and closed; they cannot succeed, he said. If youre producing strawberries, its very easy. Technically [with date palms] its very, very difficult. Every day we have failures and successes.

We keep improving all the time but we havent produced the ideal production capability and ideal ease of production.

Like other flowering plants, date palms can reproduce by seed. However, because these seeds are created by mixing the genetic material of a male and female plant, they vary from one to another, so the resulting plants may not be consistent in their yield of dates or other characteristics.

Also, it is just female date palms that produce dates, so farmers do not want to waste time and resources growing plants only to find they are male.

As an alternative, female plants can be cloned, generating offspring genetically identical to the parent. One method involves taking offshoots, which are small versions of the plant that grow out from the base of the trunk, and growing them into trees.

When you have a big tree, you have a small one growing from its foot. This one you can take; it will be exactly the same, said Mr Marionnet.

[However], within the lifespan of one adult tree, it will produce 10 to 15 daughters; its not enough to supply the demand.

Also, if the mother plant has a disease, a daughter plant grown from an offshoot will have the same condition. Mr Marionnet said only about 60 per cent of offshoots grow successfully.

So instead, tissue culture, which involves taking tiny pieces of plant derived from offshoots and growing them under laboratory conditions, is used.

The Marionnet family, which has an agricultural company in France with more than a century of history, set Al Wathba Marionnet up with an Emirati partner in the UAE in 1998 because the country is a key market for date palms. They employ 35 people, most in the laboratories and greenhouses, and produces 200,000 to 250,000 date palms each year, many exported to India, Pakistan, Central America, Africa and many Middle Eastern countries.

Green Coast Nurseries, which also exports all over the world, has an 86-hectare nursery where annually it grows more than 100,000 palms, including types of palm other than the date palm, such as the Listona fan palm. The company also has a large date farm.

Mrs Khazal said early varieties of date palm produce fruits from June onwards and the harvesting season runs until October. Most varieties come mid-season - June, July, August. Right now [at] our farm you will see an army of people. They work early morning and in the afternoon, she said.

The date palm industry has methods to ripen dates in storage, allowing them to be harvested early.

Other countries to have date palm tissue culture facilities include Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Spain.

How date palms are cloned by tissue culture

Producing date palms by tissue culture typically involves cutting out small sections of the growing part of offshoots and planting them in a nutrient medium before keeping them in the dark. New shoots are generated and are cut out and planted separately. After about six months of growth, the small plants are put in pots and may be kept in a high humidity section of a greenhouse before further growth in a regular area of a greenhouse. Al Wathba Marionnet keeps plants for between eight months and a year in a greenhouse, by which time they are large enough to be sent by air to customers. They are packed in boxes that hold 25 plants and that fit in air-freight pallets. Customers can expect plants to start producing dates after three to five years. The prices charged vary from one date palm variety to another. Al Wathba Marionnet produces about 16 varieties, while the date palm tissue culture laboratory at UAE University publishes a list of 18 varieties that it sells, the most expensive of which, Barhee and Majhool, cost Dh150 per plant. One variety, Khlass, sells for Dh140 each, while the remaining 15 varieties, among them Sultana, Lulu, Debbas and Khadri, are Dh130 per plant. The laboratory pledges that plants will be true-to-type to the variety, be free of pests or diseases, have a strong root system and be able to grow more rapidly than normal offshoots. If looked after properly, survival rates are said to be nearly 100 per cent.

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Date palm cloning ensures traditional UAE industry has a sweet future - The National

A Hull supermarket has reassured customers they have had no recent issues with card cloning following reports of fraud at the store petrol station.

A post on Hull Blues and Twos that was shared hundreds of times claimed a customers card was cloned after using Asda Kingswood petrol station in north Hull.

The post read: Please can you advise anyone who has used Asda Kingswood petrol pay at pump to check their account as our card has been cloned around 7pm tonight (Wednesday July 19) the store have been informed. Please check your bank accounts.

The supermarket has, however, said they have received no reports about it and has daily security checks to catch such cloning devices.

Jon Tabiner, Asda Kingswood store manager, said: Wed like to reassure our customers that we have had no issues raised to us about our card payment systems.

We have daily security checks in place to ensure everything is working as it should and would encourage anyone who has a concern to contact us directly.

Shell Carter, of Hull, said she had 750 taken out of her account when she was caught out by a card cloning device at the Kingswood petrol station in April.

She said: I always use pump number 10 and have done for months. I went and got my fuel as usual, paid on my card and then went shopping.

Everything seemed fine until I went to the bank the next day to get money out to realise there were three transactions which had cleared my account of 750, and the money had been moved to other accounts.

She said she now uses cash rather than her card due to the stress and upset after becoming victim to card fraud.

I went into the bank, where they cancelled my card and investigated for fraud, she said. It wasnt refunded for a few days until they had a proper look into it.

I also saw one of the staff members at Asda petrol station who informed me I was one of a few it had happened to that day. And someone else had been there, put their card in and the device used to clone cards fell out. I was one of the unlucky few.

I pay cash now as it was a lot of stress and upset just by using the quick pay lanes. I cant understand how this has happened about three times this year.

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Asda Kingswood speak out after card cloning reports at store's petrol station - Hull Daily Mail

ARZ050-051-059>061-070>073-LAZ001>006-010>014-017>022-OKZ077-TXZ096-097-108>112-124>126-136>138-149>153-165>167-220000-/O.CON.KSHV.HT.Y.0001.000000T0000Z-170722T0000Z/Sevier-Howard-Little River-Hempstead-Nevada-Miller-Lafayette-Columbia-Union-Caddo-Bossier-Webster-Claiborne-Lincoln-De Soto-Red River-Bienville-Jackson-Ouachita-Sabine-Natchitoches-Winn-Grant-Caldwell-La Salle-McCurtain-Bowie-Franklin-Titus-Camp-Morris-Cass-Wood-Upshur-Marion-Smith-Gregg-Harrison-Cherokee-Rusk-Panola-Nacogdoches-Shelby-Angelina-San Augustine-Including the cities of De Queen, Nashville, Mineral Springs, Dierks, Ashdown, Hope, Prescott, Texarkana, Stamps, Lewisville, Bradley, Magnolia, El Dorado, Shreveport, Bossier City, Minden, Springhill, Homer, Haynesville, Ruston, Farmerville, Bernice, Mansfield, Stonewall, Logansport, Coushatta, Martin, Arcadia, Ringgold, Gibsland, Jonesboro, Monroe, Many, Zwolle, Pleasant Hill, Natchitoches, Winnfield, Colfax, Montgomery, Dry Prong, Clarks, Grayson, Columbia, Jena, Midway, Olla, Idabel,Broken Bow, Clarksville, Bogata, Mount Vernon, Mount Pleasant, Pittsburg, Daingerfield, Lone Star, Naples, Omaha, Atlanta, Linden, Hughes Springs, Queen City, Mineola, Winnsboro, Quitman, Hawkins, Gilmer, Big Sandy, Jefferson, Tyler, Longview, Marshall,Jacksonville, Rusk, Henderson, Carthage, Nacogdoches, Center, Lufkin, San Augustine, Hemphill, and Pineland600 AM CDT Fri Jul 21 2017...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING...* EVENT...Hot and humid conditions will continue with high temperatures in the mid to upper 90s. When combined with the humidity, heat indices will range from 105 to 109 degrees. * TIMING...Heat index readings of 105 plus can be expected mainly during the afternoon and very early evening hours. * IMPACT...Heat related illnesses may become possible for those outdoors, especially when out in direct sunshine. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...Take extra precautions to prepare your body for any sort of work outside today. Consider rescheduling exercise and strenuous activities before or after the hot afternoon readings. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke such as the chills or a sudden lack of perspiration.It is best to wear light weight and loose fitting clothing. Drinkplenty of fluids such as water before, during and after exposure to the heat. When possible, seek an air-conditioned space or at least time spent out of the sun and remember to check on relatives, neighbors and pets. &&$$

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Men accused of cloning credit cards arrested in Bossier City | News ... - KTBS

Gurgaon: Four persons, including three former employees of PVR cinemas in Gurgaon, were arrested by Gurgaon police for allegedly cloning credit and debit cards of customers who visited the theatres.

The accused are suspected to have cloned around 45 to 50 cards of customers and siphoned an amount of Rs20 to Rs25 lakhs of customers who visited the theatres located on two malls on MG Road, the police said on Friday.

The accused have been identified as Ajay Raghav, Sanjay Jat, Rahul Yadav and Sonajeet. They took note of ATM pin numbers of customers and later used it to withdraw cash from the cards cloned by them. Raghav, Jat, and Yadav worked in the mulitplexes.

Two ATM card readers, one card cloning machine, one laptop and few cloned cards were recovered from the accused. The accused have been sent on three days police remand for further questioning.

The machines are easily available online at a very low price, police said.

A few days earlier, a similar racket was unearthed inDelhi where an employee of Farzi cafe in Connaught Place was caught by police for cloning cards.

Sumit Kuhar, deputy commissioner of police (crime), said that Ajay Raghav, a resident of Mathura in UP,was the kingpin of the gang and was arrested from Mathura.

Raghav got to know that police was after him so he had shifted his accommodation. He is married and used the stolen money for familys expenses, said Kuhar.

Raghavs arrest and unraveling of the gang came after a Gurgaon resident Dhrishti Bhasin complained at Sector 56 police station that someone had withdrawn Rs50,000 from her account using a debit card on May 25.

The matter was referred to the Cyber crime cell, which formed a team under cell in-charge inspector Anand Kumar that started identifying the ATMs from where the cash was being withdrawn.

After sustained investigation, the police was able to identify Sanjay Jat, a resident from Alwar in Rajasthan, and arrested him from his brothers house in south city 2, said Kuhar.

On questioning, Jat spilled the beans and this led to the arrest of others including Raghav, Sonajeet who lives in DLF phase 4, and Rahul Yadav who is from Kosli in Rewari.

It is being suspected that there are more members involved in the fraud, who used to steal ATM pin numbers from different locations. Police is also on the look out of a person, who had taught card cloning to Jat, which led to his entry into this trade.

The accused have been arrested in a case registered at sector 56 police station under section 379 (theft), 420 (fraud), and 120b (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and section 66 of the IT Act.

A representative of the PVR cinemas said that officials authorised to speak to the media were not available.

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Four including ex-employees of PVR arrested for card cloning - Hindustan Times

PUNE: The cyber crime cell of the Pune police on Sunday arrested Nigerian national Ifeanyi Mike Mbaeze (34) for allegedly installing skimmer (machine) at isolated ATMs in Pune for stealing debit card data. Mbaeze from Sangvi is the third suspect arrested in card-cloning case. Police had earlier arrested his accomplices, Ogbehase Fortune (42) from Pimple Gurav and Bashar Dakingari Usman (26) from Pirangut, on July 11 and 12. Mbaeze had come to India on a business visa in 2015. Before coming to Pune, he was staying in Mumbai. The cell inspector Manisha Zende said, "The involvement of Mbaeze had come to light during the interrogation of his two accomplices. We have recovered three cellphones and Rs 8,000 from him." She said, "We suspect Mbaeze for using skimmer for copying data of debit cards from ATMs. Mbaeze claimed that he was a garments dealer, but failed to furnish evidence." We have invoked charges of conspiracy under section 120 (b) of the IPC on the three suspects, she added.

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Nigerian held for cloning of debit cards - Times of India

The Uttarakhand Police today said a Special Task Force (STF) will probe cases of several people of the state being duped through cloning of ATM cards.

Additional Director General (Law and Order) Ram Singh Meena said in the past two days over 50 people of the state have approached the police complaining that lakh of rupees were withdrawn from their accounts without their knowledge.

Meena said that these withdrawals were made in New Delhi and Jaipur after the victims' ATMs cards were cloned.

With a rise in such cases, the police have also issued an advisory asking people to avoid using ATMs without a security guard and be careful while entering their PINs into the machine.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

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Ukhand: Over 50 duped in ATM card cloning, STF to probe | Latest ... - Daily News & Analysis