The Chennai Police on Friday claimed that it had arrested a Srilankan Tamil, mastermind behind a major credit card scam. The racket was involved in cloning credit cards using a skimmer, an embossing machine and other equipment.

The Police arrested HariKumar on October 15 when he tried to buy things using a fake credit card in Perambur. When interrogated, he disclosed that the brain behind the scam was Umesh alias Jatti, a Srilankan tamil settled in Canada. He said that Jatti had recently moved to Chennai. The police recovered four fake credit cards from Harikumar. The case was then handed over to central crime branch for further probe.

Special teams were able to catch Umesh, a marine engineer, from Porur. When interrogated, he revealed that he had obtained several blank credit cards sent from Malaysia by some agents. He said that he had also obtained particulars of several credit cards from his friends in Canada, where he lived for several years. He engraved and embossed the particulars on the blank credit cards. He also prepared fake driving licences, PAN cards. Passports to show to the suspicious shopkeepers while buying things.

The police recovered 24 fake credit cards and several blank cards from his house. They also came across a laptop in which he had stored details of persons living abroad. The police also recovered the equipment used fro engraving and embossing details on the blank cards.

The interrogation by the investing officers revealed that Umesh had sent many agents across Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states to make purchases using fake credit cards. A senior police officer said, "We believe that Umesh and his agents may have cheated shops to the tune of Rs 50 lakh in the state. He also informed the investigating officers that he had supplied at least 150 fake credit cards to many agents."

In a similar credit card fraud, Mumbai crime branch arrested three persons involved in a Nigerian fake credit card fraud. The police have identified them as Hemant Arora, Sumer Shaikh and Calod Wilfred Lobo. They have been remanded to police custody till 3rd of November.