An unemployed youth from Chandernagore was arrested in Chowringhee on Tuesday evening for defrauding credit-card holders of lakhs of rupees.

As many as 25 credit cards and personal details of over 500 card holders were found on 25-year-old Subhradeb Saha Chowdhury. His house was searched but no cash was found.

Saha Chowdhury was produced in court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody till May 17.

On January 27, the youth withdrew more than Rs 2 lakh from ATMs with credit cards held by Tollygunge resident Shantanu Prasanna Mukherjee.

“One of Mukherjee’s two credit cards was found in Saha Chowdhury’s bag. We suspect that he duped several other people,” deputy commissioner (detective department) Jawed Shamim said.

One of the investigators said Saha Chowdhury used to visit credit-card holders in their homes masquerading as an employee of the banks that issued their cards.

In his complaint, Mukherjee said Saha Chowdhury had offered to “upgrade” his two credit cards. “He took away the cards saying that it was mandatory to deposit them to the bank. Saha Chowdhury then found out from Mukherjee the personal details required to get his Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) from the bank,” the officer said.

After leaving Mukherjee’s home, Saha Chowdhury contacted the bank and identified himself as the holder of the cards. “He said that he had forgotten the PINs. When the bank officials asked him about Mukherjee’s family details, he answered promptly,” the officer said.

Later that day, Saha Chowdhury withdrew Rs 1.65 lakh and Rs 41,000 from different ATMs by using the two cards. “Banks engage private firms to market credit cards. We are trying to find out whether Chowdhury had links with the agencies. The possibility of some bank employees helping him will also be investigated,” Shamim said.