ATM fraud suspects netted on a tip-off

A Romanian national and his woman consort who slipped away from the country last month was arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths who were on the lookout for them last week. The suspect was wanted in connection with an international Automated Teller Machine (ATM) racket.

Sleuths probing the multi million rupee ATM fraud were tipped off that the Rumanian national was expected to arrive at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) last week.

Accordingly a team of CID officers proceeded to the BIA and were waiting for the arrival of the most wanted suspect they were looking for.

No sooner the foreigner was sighted at the Arrival lounge after being cleared by the Immigration officials, sleuths walked up to him and said they wanted to question him with regard to an ATM investigation.

The young Romanian national (26) however did not lose his cool but fully cooperated with the investigators. He was soon bundled into a vehicle and was whisked away to the fourth floor of the CID headquarters in Colombo where he was interrogated at length.

The sleuths in the course of their interrogation were able to gather vital information pertaining to the ATM fraud. The Romanian mastermind had admitted committing several ATM frauds in the country and elsewhere in Asia.

The sleuths also learnt about the foreign woman who operated with him in Sri Lanka last month. Both suspects escaped to Italy last January by taking a flight from the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA). Their modes operandi was to decipher secret ATM numbers of card holders and send them across to Italy where duplicate cards were manufactured. The suspects thereafter withdrew money of local account holders while in Italy.

Following the interrogation of the Romanian suspect sleuths gathered vital information regarding two other Romanian nationals who had also arrived in the country from Italy. The two suspects who arrived on a tourist visa were due to return to Italy next month. Both suspects were arrested last week by a team of CID officers who followed them to different parts of the country where they gathered valuable information from ATM networks. The suspects were arrested while hanging around near an ATM in Colombo.

The suspects were planning to steal monies of cricket fans who were due to arrive in the country shortly to witness the ICC World Cricket Cup matches in Sri Lanka. Following the arrest of the suspects, electronic equipment and other gadgetry were recovered from their possession. The suspects had elaborate plans to use the equipment on ATMs to decipher secret codes of card holders. Although they planned to fly back to Italy next month, their travel plans were hastily advanced on hearing the arrest of their ring leaders by the CID.

The two Romanian suspects had checked into a hotel in Colombo during their brief stay in Colombo and had hired a car to travel to different parts of the country to collect data from ATMs which they had subsequently sent to their agents in Italy, sources said.

The main Romanian suspect who arrived in the country with a foreign woman last month had stolen secret code numbers from ATMs and had withdrawn millions of rupees while in Italy. The stolen money belonged to several local account holders here. The suspects had targeted two local banks that included a State owned Bank situated in Colombo Fort and a private bank at Wellawatte.

Millions of rupees were stolen from these banks, sources said. The fraud came to light when three account holders complained to the bank authorities that someone had tampered with their accounts and pilfered large sums of money from their accounts which they held in the banks. They also learnt the swindler had drawn large sums of money from Italy.

The Bank officials were shocked when they discovered the cross-border fraud where millions of rupees had been siphoned away to a foreign country.

According to bank sources, it was the first occasion where local banks had experienced a cross-border fraud of this nature. However the banks acting on the complaints of their account holders brought it to the notice of the local police. Subsequently on a directive of IGP Mahinda Balasuriya, the CID took over the investigations to further probe into the ramifications of the cross-border crime. Meanwhile sleuths were able to gather information regarding the ATM fraud. They also learnt a lot about the foreign woman linked to the racket.

When the matter was assigned to the CID, its Director SSP Amarasinghe, detailed a team of police officers from the Fraud Squad to investigate the fraud. They commenced investigations by downloading data recorded in the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) of the two banks. While viewing the CCTV footage the sleuths saw the picture of the foreign man and woman standing beside the Automated Teller Machine at Wellawatte. The man was seen taking measurements of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) while the woman stood away gazing at the road on the lookout for persons approaching the ATM.

Two days later two men clad in tee-shirts visited the ATM machine at Wellawatte. The men after withdrawn money left in a jeep towards the direction of Galle.

The sleuths followed them in a vehicle and the chase finally ended at Galle. The men drove their vehicle into a house at Punchi Kuruduwatte.

Sleuths after making discreet inquiries from the Grama Niladhari and learnt about the inmates at Punchi Kuruduwatte, Kandegoda. The family had migrated to Italy a few years back. They showed the Grama Niladhari a photograph of the man taken from the CCTV footage. The Grama Niladari nodded and said he looked like someone who had migrated to Italy.

Further inquiries from the neighbours at Punchi Kuruduwatte confirmed that the man in the picture had gone to Italy some time back. The neighbours told the sleuths that he had come back a few months ago. They also told that he leaves home early and returns in the night. The sleuths raided the house and found 75 credit cards with pin numbers, along with a foreign manufactured pistol, a lap Top and details of credit card transactions. The two suspects were arrested and brought to Colombo for further interrogation. The Interpol headquarters in France was also alerted following the disappearance of the Romanian and the foreign woman.