A 25-year-old youth from Ghaziabad has been arrested for making fraudulent transactions by exploiting the loopholes in the cash dispensation system of various ATMs in the city.

The prime accused Md. Gaffur aka Sonu Mallick managed to loot Rs 1.70 lakh from at least four ATMs of different banks in Cuttack in the last two months.

Unlike ATM robbers, who uproot the entire machines with cash, Gaffur was innovative and executed his plan with precision. Gaffur earlier used to work for with a similar company that used to load cash in ATMs in Ghaziabad. Hence, he was aware of the technical know of the operation of the ATM machines and its lacunas.

He used to closely observe the persons who came to withdraw money. After entering the Atm pin he uses to switch off the machine so that the user may feel there is a power issue and the transaction is unsuccessful. But once he switches on the machine it dispenses cash. Such an easy trick right? Not everyone aware of this thing unless he worked with ATM’s before.

Speaking about the series of incidents, police said Gaffur used to trick the banks into making a successful reversal of money despite withdrawals from his accounts. Police said such type of fraudulent transaction is referred as ‘ATM Power Interruption Fraud’.

“After punching the PIN and entering the amount for withdrawal, Gaffur used to snap the power supply to the ATM after the machine started to dispense the cash,” said Police Commissioner Khurania.

Khurania said the accused was successfully in making multiple transactions while there was no mention of in the cash ledger statements owing to technical glitches following the interruption in power supply.

After the company closed down its services, Gaffur was rendered jobless and faced problems in finding alternative jobs. Gaffur went on the wrong track and started to loot cash using the technique to make fraudulent cash withdrawals.

Preliminary investigation reveals that the accused is also involved in similar frauds in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and other states.