A 27-year-old man identified as Amir Khan was arrested by the Delhi Police on Wednesday for duping people at the ATM by pushing matchstick in the keypad of the ATM machine. The incident came to light after a complaint was registered against him at the Sunlight Colony police station. The police took immediate action and were successful in arresting Khan with the help of technical and human surveillance.
During police interrogation, Khan revealed that he was a school dropout and was an active member of a gang that has a unique way of performing their tasks. He has also reportedly revealed the names of some of the other gang members. Khan further told the police he became was in a wrong company when he was a teenager and started committing small crimes. “He learnt the new technique — to dupe people using old Central Bank of India ATMs — a few months ago,” Rajesh Deo, DCP (Crime Branch) was quoted as saying.
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While speaking on how Khan used matchsticks to dupe people, the police explained that he would sharpen one end of the matchstick and push it in the space between the keys on the keypad, adding that the keypad would stop working once the matchstick was fixed. He would then wait for people outside the ATM.
“The older ATMs generally ask for the PIN number in the initial step. The moment a user inserts his or her card in the machine, a window pops up on the screen asking if the user wants to continue in Hindi or English. To answer that, operating the keypad is not required,” the police said.
“When the user would try to press the keys to enter his or her PIN number, it would not work,” the officer added.
Khan would then enter the ATM pretending to be in a hurry. The user, who would usually type the pin repeatedly in with the hope of completing the transaction, would leave in frustration. By then, Khan would memorise the pin and would leave the kiosk by pretending to believe that the ATM was not functional. However, he would return and remove the matchstick before entering the PIN he had memorised.
He would reportedly avoid withdrawing huge amounts of cash so as to not attract attention.
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Source: The Indian Express
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