International credit card racketeer Jeyatharan Thambapillai (28) had distributed lakhs of Indian rupees of siphoned off money among Sri Lankan refugees in camps in Chengalpattu and Dindigul, said city police, who have apprehended him.

His two accomplices, who were picked up with him from a hideout in Ramapuram on Friday last, were youths from the refugee camps trained by him in bank card cloning, police sources said.

A Lankan national, Jeyatharan was wanted by Interpol in connection with credit card conning and the subsequent swindling of a large sum of money in Sri Lanka in 2011.

Sleuths of the Bank Fraud Wing recovered Jeyatharan’s laptop and the scrutiny of the device revealed credit card data pertaining to bank customers in the U.S., Canada, U.K and the rest of Europe. The international racketeer confessed to links with international credit card gangs and having the obtained data of more than 200 cards of international customers.

Jeyatharan had interacted online with overseas fraudsters through two websites and bought bank card data by paying $3 to $350 per card according to its credit limit. He then cloned credit cards using the data and withdrew lakhs of rupees from ATMs in Tamil Nadu and made purchases as well. He had also contacted Sri Lankan youths in camps and distributed the stolen money among them.

Pradeep Kumar (36), who was arrested along with Jeyatharan, had escaped from the Dindigul refugee camp and was being trained by the latter in credit card cloning and siphoning cash. Prem alias Selvanesan who was arrested on March 14 for cloning cards of bank customers in Chennai and cheating account holders of over Rs. 25 lakh was also trained by Jeyatharan.

Investigators are likely to take Jeyatharan into custody to ascertain if any bank details of Chennaiites have been misused. (TheHindu)