ATM fraud count touches 59 Cops advise victims to complain through banks

TT, 4 December 2019, Calcutta: Twenty-four complaints of fraudulent withdrawal of money from ATMs were lodged on Tuesday, taking the number of cases reported since Monday to 59.

The complainants together have lost around Rs 10 lakh, police said.

The police are urging victims to lodge complaints through their banks.

“Chances of getting back the stolen money are higher if the victims report the matter through their banks. It is the responsibility of the banks to compensate its customers because some lacunae in the security system of the ATMs might have been responsible for the fraud,” said a senior officer.

As many as 44 complaints have been lodged with Jadavpur police station — 35 on Monday and the rest on Tuesday. Thirteen complaints have been lodged with Charu Market police station and one each with Karaya and Netaji Nagar police stations.

The findings of a preliminary investigation by the police suggest that a Romanian or a Turkish gang, based in Delhi, orchestrated the fraud. Sleuths are scanning footage of at least three men wearing black caps and with their faces covered with masks withdrawing money from ATMs in Delhi.

The police said the frauds had copied card details of the victims with skimmers they had attached to ATMs in Calcutta and used the data to withdraw money from ATMs in south Delhi.

The cops have identified at least two ATMs in Calcutta — one on Tollygunge Circular Road and the other in Jadavpur’s Sulekha — from where customers’ data is suspected to have been stolen.

Both ATMs are of a nationalised bank and neither has any guard, an officer said. There are around 250 ATM kiosks in Calcutta that do not have any guard.

A high court lawyer mentioned in the complaint he lodged with Karaya police station that he had lost Rs 70,000 in seven transactions. Another person, who filed a complaint with Netaji Nagar police station, reported a loss of Rs 50,000.

At least two fraudulent transactions were reported on Tuesday. Both victims are residents of Jadavpur.

The police suspect the card data had been stolen in April. The gang waited till November and December to steal the money to ensure footage of CCTV cameras in ATMs is no longer available.

“Till now, all withdrawals have been made from ATMs in south Delhi. Our team has reached the spot and is working on the case,” said joint commissioner (crime) Murlidhar Sharma.