Man loses Rs 40,000 in ATM fraud; bank refunds money

An executive working with an electronics firm lost Rs 40,000 in an ATM fraud in Dombivali here, police said today.
Rahul Badgujar, customer of a top private bank, fell prey to a fraudster, who tampered with an ATM and siphoned off the money from his account after the victim unsuccessfully tried to withdraw cash on January 31.
The 33-year-old, who works with an electronics firm in Mumbai suburb of Andheri, inserted his debit card in an ATM at Dombivali but could not complete the transaction as the machine got stuck. He moved to another ATM machine in the same outlet from where he withdrew Rs 2,000.

The next day Badgujar saw a text message on his mobile phone which said he had withdrawn Rs 40,000, besides Rs 2,000 the previous day, said R L Kulkarni, Senior Inspector at Vishnu Nagar Police Station, quoting the complaint.
Badgujar told police he had withdrawn only Rs 2,000 from his account and not the additional Rs 40,000.
"After a written complaint, we began a preliminary enquiry. After we obtained the CCTV footage of the ATM and spoke to bank officials, we registered an FIR on February 8 against an unidentified man, who was seen withdrawing Rs 40,000 from the victim's bank account after tampering with the ATM machine," Kulkarni added.

The accused was aged between 25-30 years, the officer said, adding "We are looking for him." Police could not give details of how the ATM machine was fiddled by the fraudster.

Meanwhile, Badgujar told PTI that the private bank today refunded his lost money.
The bank said the customer erred by not cancelling his transaction at the ATM and someone took advantage of this.
"However, as a goodwill gesture we have refunded the money to him. We advise customers to be vigilant while transacting at ATMs and always press the cancel button before walking out," a bank spokesperson said.