Calcutta, April 18: Fill her up, but make sure your credit card is not sucked dry.

As Dr P.K. Chatterjee now knows, it may not be safe to hand over your credit card to the pump attendant to pay for petrol while you wait in the car.

Two months ago, the doctor from Tala in north Calcutta found he had been billed on his SBI credit card for air tickets worth Rs 43,424 that he had not bought. His card statement showed the tickets were bought online from three different airlines.

Chatterjee complained to police. Investigators from the cyber crime wing have now found the tickets were bought by the owner of a pump where he had paid for petrol by card.

“Venugopal Jhunjhunwala, 47, who lives in a ninth floor apartment of an upmarket building on A.J.C. Bose Road, was arrested yesterday,” Jawed Shamim, deputy commissioner of police (detective department), said.

During interrogation, he revealed that he owns a petrol pump on Beliaghata Main Road as well as a hardware shop in central Calcutta. Unknown to Chatterjee, Jhunjhunwala had copied his card details, including the three-digit card value verification (CVV) number, after a pump attendant had taken it inside to swipe.

Jhunjhunwala had then used these details to book the air tickets using his laptop. The police tracked him down by contacting the travel agency and tracing the internet service provider he used.

Credit card providers said the only way to guard against such fraud would be to get out of the car and watch as the pump attendant swipes your card.

“We have seized a laptop that he (Jhunjhunwala) used in committing the crimes, and are investigating other complaints in which we suspect his involvement. He was produced before court and remanded in our custody till April 23,” Shamim added.

Chatterjee was not the only one to be cheated by Jhunjhunwala. Shubhra Dasgupta of Tangra filed a complaint today saying her SBI credit card statement reflected purchase of air tickets worth Rs 43,000 that she knew nothing of. She, too, had paid for petrol at the same pump using the card.

“We are looking into how he (Jhunjhunwala) had intended to encash the tickets and are probing the possible connivance of travel agents,” Shamim said.