Acting on a tip off, Giridih Cyber cell arrested eight cyber criminals from different locations in Giridih, said Cyber Dy SP Sandeep Suman on Sunday.

Police have recovered 14 mobiles, six ATM cards, 12 fake sim cards and Rs 109600 cash from those who have been arrested, he added.

Cyber cell sources said that the Giridih Cyber police on Saturday arrested three cyber criminals from Gapai area within limits of Mufaasil police station.

 They were identified as Chandan Srivastava, Vikash Verma and Vaibhav Kumar, who were directly involved in swapping stolen ATM cards at ATM kiosks, hacking ATM machines and doing fraudulent online shopping for the last several months in Giridih and its surrounding districts. After interrogation, police got some other tip off and raided two different locations under Bengabad and Ahilayapur police stations and arrested five other criminals.

 They have been identified as Asish Kumar Mandal, Sanjay Kumar Mandal, Laxam Kumar Mandal, Jitendra Mandal, Narayan Mandal and Niranjan Kumar Mandal -- all from Giridih district.

Police also recovered ATM card, Sims, mobiles and some other equipment used to fix damaged magnetic stripes of cards from them.

Suman said that they used to hack ATM machines in guise of helping customers. The arrested persons swapped victim’s ATM cards and copied the PIN codes which they used to feed in machine while withdrawing money. He said the ATM cards of victims were later also used in online shopping. Giridih region has become a haven for cyber criminals. For the last five years, almost all major cyber crime reported in Jharkhand had a link to this stretch.