The Panaji (Goa) police has arrested six persons alleged for involvement in a major credit card racket.

According to the police, the alleged are suspected to be a part of a large group involved in cloning (replication) of legitimate credit cards of Europeans holders.

The legitimate credit cards were encoded on fake credit cards produced in India and used for online casino transactions and for gambling in offshore casinos.

"The first four digits of a card indicate the card's originating country. A majority of them are from European countries, especially Germany and England," the police sources confirmed.

"We have arrested six persons in a credit card scam and we suspect it to be an international racket involving several persons. We have got 14 days police custody of the accused and further investigations are on," said, Sandesh Chodankar, station in-charge, Panaji police.

The group members arrived Goa on Wednesday from Mumbai and visited an offshore casino for gambling on the same day. The alleged used the replicated credit cards to for gambling at the casino, when they were suspected for their activities and were taken into custody.

It is suspected that the offence is deep rooted and several credit and debit cards holders, especially those from Europe might be affected.