Two people lose money using ATM with a skimmer device
Bengaluru: Two persons, who recently used the Canara Bank ATM kiosk in Koramangala, have reported illegal money withdrawal from their accounts by criminals who fixed skimming devices to steal their card details.
On July 2, software engineer Shashank Mishra (31) was shocked by two messages, stating that Rs 16,800 was withdrawn from his account. He did not use the debit card in his possession.
Mishra, a resident of Whitefield, called the bank and blocked the card, besides filing a complaint with the Bellandur police.
The message to Mishra stated that cash was withdrawn from an ATM kiosk at 16th Main in BTM 2nd Stage. At the time of receiving the message, Mishra was at work in Bellandur. His complaint was forwarded to the cyber crime police.
It was then that Mishra recalled using the card at the same Canara Bank ATM kiosk with two of his friends. One of them — Mishra’s roommate — lost Rs 30,000, prompting the techie to file a complaint with his bank, which is working to refund the money he lost.
The second friend who withdrew from the same kiosk also got text alerts that someone was trying to withdraw money from his account. He immediately blocked the card.
Reports of criminals fixing skimming devices to ATM machines to capture card details of unsuspecting users have emerged in recent times. Last month, a manager of a public sector bank filed a complaint with the police, stating that one of the ATM machines had been tampered with.
The bank’s Bhuvaneshwari Nagar branch manager Madhupala S said in the complaint that thousands of accounts could have been compromised by a skimming device found in the ATM machine.
Based on his complaint, the Amruthahalli police have taken up a case of theft and cheating on Friday.
The manager learnt about the theft when several of his customers complained that money was withdrawn from their accounts without their knowledge. A bank probe revealed that the accounts of those using the ATM machine at the Kempapura branch had been compromised.
“A further probe, including CCTV footage analysis, indicated that a skimmer device was installed to record the card details of the customers and a pin camera to record the pin numbers were used on the ATM machine on Monday and Tuesday,” the manager said in the complaint.
The police are reviewing the CCTV footage to identify the person who installed the skimming device.