A man posing as a bank official is conning unsuspecting customers at ATM counters. It could happen to you too
A man posing as a bank official is conning unsuspecting customers at ATM counters. It could happen to you too
The next time your ATM card gets stuck in a machine and you seek help from a stranger, beware.u00a0
Arun Sethi, a Ghaziabad-based businessman, did just that, and lost Rs 20,000.
It happened last Sunday at a State Bank of India ATM in Roop Nagar. When Sethi went there to withdraw money, he found a young man standing inside. He introduced himself as a bank official and said he was there to fix the machine.
|
|
Two video grabs show the conman at work. In the first, he is standing at the door; in the next he moves in to help an unsuspecting bank customer. (Below) Arun Sethi at the Roop Nagar ATM of State Bank of India where he was duped. |
"I had problem withdrawing money and the young man insisted on helping me.
He took my card and asked for my password. He withdrew Rs 20,000 on my behalf and returned the card to me. I thanked him and returned home," Sethi told MiD DAY.
Later, when Sethi's son Abhishek was checking his father's bank account on the Internet he found that another Rs 20,000 were withdrawn from the same ATM that evening. And again Rs 100 from an ATM at Daryaganj.
u00a0
A harried Sethi checked his ATM card and realised that the man who had helped him withdraw money at the Roop Nagar ATM had swapped his card with a fake one.
"He conned me. He was helping out others too. I am not sure whether he duped them as well or not," Sethi said.
Sethi informed the police a day after the incident and also blocked his ATM card, but the money was gone.
The police seized the video footage from the ATM machine and found that the young man was standing inside the ATM for a long time and offered to help many customers who visited it.
The police are investigating the case and are on the lookout for the man. "He seems to be a professional. He knew exactly where the camera was positioned.
u00a0
He wore a cap to hide his face and moved his face away while withdrawing money," said a senior police official.
Been there, done thatIt has been found that there are groups who specialise in credit and ATM card rackets. The police too have arrested gangs involved in credit card cloning.
u00a0
In most cases, it has been seen that at least one person involved in the racket has been an employee of a banking firm or agency dealing with banks.
In some cases the cons used blank cards, sealed them with a magnetic device and copied the number of the original ATM card. The fake card was then used for shopping.
Not only from India, ATM and credit card frauds often use cards from abroad as well. Call Centre employees working for various banks too have been arrested in the past for their hand in these frauds.
Last year, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police had busted an international racket of credit card cloning. The gang had cheated several banks of crores of rupees.
Through various modules operating in the US and Canada, a computer engineer from Pune received encrypted data of credit cards swapped at restaurants, malls, petrol stations or over the Internet and passed the information to his men in Delhi.
