SIT probing fraudulent ATM withdrawals collecting CCTV footage

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Kolkata Police to probe the fraudulent withdrawals made from ATMs of two nationalised banks in the city was collecting CCTV footages from the locations, a senior police officer said today.

CCTV footages inside the outlets would help in grabbing the culprits as well as the mode of their operations in stealing informations of the customers, he said.

Another officer, who is a member of the SIT, said the ATM outlets which are not manned by security guards are the most vulnerable ones.

"And these two ATM outlets had no guards which helped the culprits getting enough time to do the required altercations they need to get details of the card when inserted inside an ATM machine by one customer," he said.

Going by the footages, so far collected by the investigating officers, a couple of persons wearing masks were found in some of the clips.

"These two persons were wearing caps and their faces were covered by pollution masks. However, we have somehow managed to get an idea about their identity and their modus operandi," he said.

As a part of their investigation into the matter, Kolkata Police has also contacted their Delhi counterpart for help because the fraudsters had been operating mostly from the national capital region, the officer said.

Skimmer captures as well as saves details stored in the credit and debit card's magnetic stripe when it is swiped and thus the entire information about the card holder contained in the stripe gets stolen, the officer elaborated about the way information of cards were stolen.

"The skimmers are often hidden over the card swipe mechanism on ATMs machines. These days the culprits are also placing a small, undetectable camera on the ATM machine itself to record the PIN details of a customer giving all the information needed to manufacture a clone of the cards and withdraw money," he detailed.

So far around 76 customers of two nationalised banks and one private bank, mostly from the Golpark area in south Kolkata have lodged complaints with the Kolkata Police that they were duped of huge amounts of money even when they were not using their debit cards at any ATM.

Around Rs 18 lakh to Rs 20 lakh have been siphoned off by fraudsters operating mostly from the national capital region.

The Kolkata Police today issued a series of directives for bank customers stating the dos and don'ts as a part of the precautions needed to be taken while operating their debit or credit cards at ATM outlets.