Two foreign nationals living in Goa for more than two years have been found involved in ATM fraud. One of them was about to leave the country while Goa Police laid a trap and caught him on the Goa Airport while other was caught red-handed at the bank ATM by Goa police. Both the Bulgarian nationals were living in Arpora in North Goa.
The development has its own cost, Internet Banking, Mobile Banking and ATM Cards everything is vulnerable to the theft that too without your knowledge. There are several incidents of online fraud and ATM skimming and Goa being tourism destination mainly foreigners are found involved in these online thefts.
According to the report published by local daily Navhind Times, Mapusa police arrested two foreign nationals in an attempt to steal the cash from ATM Machine with the help of Skimmer. The incident took place at the ATM operated by the Nationalised Bank in Mapusa.
According to sources, a group of Bulgarian national was found operating into the state involved into the ATM fraud and based on the complaint lodged by the Chief Manager of Bank of India Mr Milind Purohit, police began their investigation.
According to the Bank Manager, some unknown persons had fitted a skimming device on the ATM machine operated by their bank and subsequently managed to steal the card data of many customers who had visited the said ATM for their cash withdrawals. The ATM machine is said to have located in the heart of Mapusa city.
Acting swiftly on the complaint, police registered an offence under Section 380 of the Indian penal code against unknown persons and initiated an investigation into the case. Police kept a close watch on a foreigner using the ATM booth and subsequently detained him. He has been identified as Petrov Metchenov, a Bulgarian national. Police have seized a skimmer from his possession.
>According to the Police, there were two foreign nationals have been identified operating in the state the second accused a 45-year-old Ivanovo Davranski was arrested from Dabolim airport by the Airport police as he was in the process of leaving the state.
Police managed to recover skimmer from second accused too, said the sources. Goa police were aware that the second accused is in the process of leaving the state and it would have been difficult to trace him once he had left the state hence police circulated the photographs of the accused in all the police stations across Goa including the Goa Airport, and finally, the accused was nabbed from the Airport.
Apart from the two skimmers, the cops have also seized a laptop, six mobile phones, a card reader, external hard disk and a router from the two accused. Sources in the police said that the accused were residing in a rented room at Arpora and have been travelling to Goa since the last year.
Mapusa police are further investigating into the case under the supervision of Deputy Superintendent, Mapusa, Gajanan Prabhudesai. Mapusa police inspector Tushar Lotlikar and a team of staff comprising police sub-inspector Anil Polekar, head constable Irshad Watange, police constables Franky Vaz, Rajesh Kandolkar, Laxmikant Naik, Vijay Naik, Abhishek Kasar and Sarvesh Mandrekar were involved in the investigation
Source: Navhind Times
