Identified as Hardy Temmy Swesley, a resident of Oyo state in Namibia and Sunita Shubba, a resident of Darjeeling in India, both had come to Jammu only two days ago. Another girl, stated to be Sunita’s niece was also picked up along with them but not arrested as she was found innocent during questioning.

Giving details, police said that they got a cue about them after they made an unsuccessful attempt to withdraw cash from a Bank’s ATM in Trikuta Nagar area on Sunday. As their activity looked suspicious, someone informed the police which was already on the lookout for people involved in fraudulent withdrawal of cash from banks using ‘cloned’ or ‘stolen’ credit cards.

A laptop, various credit cards of foreign and Indian banks and some other incriminating material have been seized from their possession.

Giving details, police said that Hardy had come to India on a valid visa and he came in contact with Sunita while shopping in Delhi. It was their third visit to Jammu as they had earlier visited twice during May-June and September last year.

During his September visit to Jammu, both had done shopping worth Rs 4 lakh on credit card.

About the modus operandi, police said that they used to first have credit card in their name from banks. As they also had a credit card reading machine, they used to swipe these cards in it and then mail the number/codes recorded on it to his contacts back home in Namibia. Those contacts in turn prepared the fake credit cards with those numbers and send these to Hardy in India.

On the basis of these cloned credit cards, he used to draw money from banks, or make purchases from the market. Many a times, he even used to take cash from shopkeepers offering them huge commission on the amount withdrawn by them by swapping his credit card.

Police said that both the accused had also been involved in theft of credit cards and later using them for withdrawing cash or making purchases. Both had been operational in Mumbai and Delhi as well and as such, the Jammu Kashmir Police are contacting its counterparts there as well.