Noida (UP), Feb 12 (PTI) The Noida Police has arrested two persons allegedly involved in duping people by cloning their ATM cards and withdrawing money from their bank accounts.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Elamaran G on Friday said the duo had been engaged in this work for about two years but had increased their activities during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The police have also seized nearly 70 ATM cards of various banks from the accused besides 12 “blank ATM cards”, seven ATM card-reading machines and other equipment used for cloning, the officer said.

The accused were identified as Firoz Khan and Sachin Sharma, both Gautam Budh Nagar residents.

“The police also recovered Rs 2.50 lakh from them,” Elamaran told reporters.

On their modus operandi, the additional DCP said, “They would recce ATM kiosks they wanted to target and fix their card-reading machines in them to clone user's ATM card details.”

Officials said the duo illegally withdrew money from bank accounts of at least five people in Noida who approached police after getting duped.

A fresh FIR has been lodged against the duo at the Phase 2 police station and further proceedings are underway, officials added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)