Hungarian National Held for Alleged ATM Fraud in Goa

A Hungarian national was held by the Porvorim Police in Goa after he was caught allegedly tampering with ATMs to withdraw money. Nare Janos, 45, was booked for cheating on Feb. 17, the Times of India reported.

Janos’ alleged partner in crime fled from the spot. The police are on the lookout for the partner, who has been identified as Stan, a Romanian national. The two are suspected to be involved in many other ATM related thefts, especially in the Vasco area, according to customer complaints lodged with banks in the area. The police are looking into their involvement in these cases.

Both the accused have been in Goa since January, and Janos did not have valid travel documents with him, according to the police. Their embassies have been contacted to ascertain details of their stay in the country. Janos has not been cooperating with the police, and has been reticent with the details of his stay in India. Janos, as per the details that police managed to find, was staying at Calangute for most part of his stay in Goa. He checked out of the hotel in Calangute on Feb. 17.

A customer of a public sector bank noted last week that money had been withdrawn from his account at an ATM in Chicalim, the Times of India reported. The bank was informed and the police was alerted. The description of the accused was given to the police on examination of the CCTV footage.

It was when a similar tampering was spotted at Porvorim ATM that the police rushed and caught Janos while Stan fled from spot.

According to the police, Janos would set up a skimmer at ATMs to record card details of bank customers who accessed the machine. Then he would use different cards and withdraw cash from the details he got from bank official’s use of the machine.

Several other complaints had been received by banks in Vasco of money being fraudulently withdrawn from customer accounts through ATM. The police are checking if the duo is linked to those cases as well.