Banks cancel over 50K credit cards issued in Sept, Oct

CHENNAI: After the Chennai police busted a series of credit card rackets in the city , nationalized and private banks have cancelled more than 50,000 creditcardsissuedtotheir customersin September andOctober . "Nearly 85%of the victims got their money back ," a police officer said .

During a recent meeting at the police commissioner's office , police issued new set of guidelines to all the banks while issuing credit and debit cards to their customers .

On October 2, Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested Umesh Balaravindran alias 'Shorty' andhisfour associates for cloning credit anddebitcards andcheating 64 victims . Subsequently , they arrested another gang of four persons led by Vinod . Mastermind Manoj Kumar is still absconding . In the first week of November , police arrested Janagan andhis associatefrom K K Nagar in Trichy .

After studying the credit card cloning gang's modus operandi' , police concluded that credit cards issued in September and October were the ones that were cloned by the fraudsters . "We immediately informed all the nationalized and private bank officials to cancel the credit cards that were issued in these two months ," said A John Rose, assistant commissioner of police , bank fraud wing .

Police sources said State Bank of India has alone cancelled nearly 25,000 credit cards issued to its customers . "It is less expensive for us to send a new credit card rather than tracking the customer throughour advisory ," a senior bank official said . Greater Chennai police commissioner J K Tripathy detailed certain guidelines that customers should follow.

"People should change their personal identification number frequently , notdivulge their card's CVV number to anyone . They should update their cellphone number with the bank . While inside the ATM, make sure there is no external object fitted into the card slot."

"Don't seek the help of strangers while inside an ATM. Instead , call the bank for help . While making online purchases ,useonly reputedsites ," he said .

Source:The Times of India