How to protect your money from ATM frauds

TT : Seventy Calcuttans have lost Rs 14 lakh through fraudulent withdrawal from ATMs. Police suspect a gang had stolen card details of many of the victims through skimmers they had installed in ATMs in Calcutta and used the data to withdraw money from cash vending machines in Delhi.

Here is what you need to know about the fraud and how to keep your account secure. How many people have been affected so far? Seventy, as of Wednesday evening. Forty nine complaints have been lodged with Jadavpur,16 with Charu Market and two at Netajinagar police stations. One complaint each has been lodged with Karaya, Ultadanga and Parnasree police stations. Are all cases related to skimming? Most of the cases are. Police suspect that in some cases the card holders had shared the PIN without realising the implications. Has anyone been caught for the fraud till now? No. The police have obtained photographs of three suspects of foreign origin from CCTV footage from ATMs in south Delhi.

How many ATMs are found to be affected with skimmers? Two ATMs of a nationalised bank. One is on Tollygunge Circular Road and the other at Sulekha in Jadavpur. Is this the first skimmerlinked ATM fraud in the city? A similar fraud was reported in August last year. As many as 192 cases, involving theft of Rs 25 lakh, were reported last year. How to know whether a skimmer is attached to an ATM? A customer has to check whether any plastic or fibre object is fitted in the place where the card is swiped or inserted. "One should check whether the fibre holder in which the card is swiped is loose or moving. Chances are fibre holder will come off if a skimmer is installed in the space," said an officer of the detective department. What to do if I get a message that money has been withdrawn from my account? Call the bank's helpline number and get your card blocked to prevent more unauthorised withdrawal. There are instances of people saving their money by blocking their cards after one or two unauthorised transactions.

Where to report if my money is withdrawn without my knowledge? Report the matter first to your bank and then to the police. "We always encourage people to report the fraud to the bank first. The bank becomes liable to compensate the customer," the officer added. If I report the matter to the bank, will I get back my money? The Reserve Bank of India has laid down guidelines on liability for unauthorised transactions in banks. According to the guidelines, in case there is fraud, negligence, deficiency on the part of the bank or in case of a third party breach where deficiency lies neither with the bank, nor the customer and the customer notifies the same with the bank within three working days of receiving an alert, there is zero liability on the customer.

So, it is possible you will get your money back if there is any unauthorised ATM transaction. You need to alert the bank as soon as possible after learning about a fraudulent withdrawal. You can also lodge a complaint with the police and submit copies of passbook and bank statements reflecting unauthorised transactions. How long do I have to wait before I get back my money? According to the RBI guidelines, on being notified by the customer, the bank has to credit the amount involved in the unauthorised electronic transaction to the customer's account within 10 working days from the date of such notification by the customer. What happened to those who lost their money the last time? Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among those that were hit in last year's ATM fraud. The banks asked customers through phone and SMS to block their compromised cards and upgrade to a chip-based debit card. They also urged customers to subscribe to SMS alerts. The banks settled the claims -- totalling Rs 25 lakh -- following verification of the complaints. Whose responsibility is it to ensure that there is no fraudulent activity inside the ATM? There are two types of ATMs -- ones that are operated by the respective banks and those that have been outsourced. For outsourced ATMs, a bank enters into a service contract with an operator whose job may or may not include providing security.

For ATMs run by banks, the onus of proving security lies with the banks. Security could be in the form of guards or CCTV camera.

Even for an outsourced ATM, it is the bank's duty to pull up the agency if there is any illegal activity.

The high cost of running an ATM has resulted in banks considering e-surveillance, which may fail to prevent tampering of the machines, sources said.

Did the banks make any changes in operation after the last year's fraud was unearthed? The banks, at the behest of the RBI, had started a zone-wise check of ATMs in the city. The process of upgrading the system software and installation of security patches and anti-skimming devices is going on in phases.

Are chip-enabled cards vulnerable to skimming? Yes, because such cards retain the magnetic stripe in which data is encrypted (skimmers glean data from the magnetic strip of a card). Can anti-skimmers prevent data theft? Yes, they can. These devices are fitted with sensors that can detect a parasite device and metallic objects such as a skimmer mounted on top of the card reader and can disable the ATM from undertaking transactions. Some antiskimmers use a technique called jitter, which distorts the reading of magnetic stripes by altering the speed of motion of cards. But the ATM software has to be regularly upgraded along with installation of antiskimmers.