Courtesy: Times News Network

Bangalore, Feb 23: The Cyber Crime sleuths have busted a major racket of credit cards being fraudulently used to purchase airline tickets through e-ticketing. The fraud has national ramifications.

Four persons have been arrested in this connection so far. The modus operandi: The accused get credit card numbers from various sources - some from hacking, others reportedly from some former bank staffers.

The gang purchases airline tickets generated through eticketing from the airliner. The eticket is then sold to unsuspecting travellers at a lower cost. The PNR number and other codes are divulged, only on payment of cash.

The gang has its own network through which they contact the customers. Three delivery boys, among the five persons arrested, are constantly on the move, handing over the ticket details after receiving the payment.

The arrested are Nadeem Ahmed, Nasirullah Khan, who handled the logistics and Shamsuddin, Safir Syeed and Samiualla Khan who delivered the tickets. Most are residents of Mysore Road.

Corps of Detectives (CoD) DGP K R Sreenivasan on Wednesday said the investigating team strongly suspects that the accused who have a well-established network and all metros could be linked.

The cyber cell here is co-ordinating with their counterparts in Delhi and Mumbai. While the sleuths suspect credit card numbers and other logistics were provided by a core group in Mumbai, e-ticketing transactions were made mostly for Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

"The gang transacted mostly with Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Deccan Airlines. Indian Airlines is yet to introduce e-ticketing. Some transactions were also made with foreign airliners," Sreenivasan said.

In one transaction, 19 tickets were booked for the same flight from February 17 to 23. The unsuspecting victims began to be detained at airports by airline staffers for buying tickets fraudulently.

Besides, the card holder had to deal with bank statements that reflected huge amounts. The racket first came to light here a few days back when a 22-year-old youth Vikas Solanke, a native of Hubli, working in a call centre, sold some fraudulently obtained tickets on online shopping.

A couple, who bought the tickets travelled to Kolkata a few times, before they were detained by the airlines staffers on charges of purchasing tickets with a fake credit card.

The couple informed the cyber crime police and the sleuths trapped Solanke, who had used a UK credit card. On another tip-off, the sleuths laid a trap where they arrested four persons on Tuesday.

"The accused are in judicial custody.We will have more information after interrogating them once they are in our custody," Sreenivasan said.

Sreenivasan said that banks have been asked to step up their system for verification and have photo credit cards, biometrics and also alpha numericals instead of PIN.