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BANGALORE: There appears to be a sudden rise in instances of ATM skimming. Over the past few days, a number of bank account holders in Bangalore have complained that money was illegally withdrawn from their accounts through ATMs and several have lodged police complaints.
Metlife Insurance employee G Sreekumar, who has a Citibank account, said around 10.28am on February 4, Rs 10,000 was withdrawn from an ATM in RT Nagar. He was at home and the debit card was with him. "I received an alert on my mobile phone. Even as I wondered what was going on, I received a second alert about withdrawal of another Rs 5,000," Sreekumar said.
He later found through customer service that both transactions were carried out at a Citibank ATM on RT Nagar Main Road. "I filed an FIR with the RT Nagar police station. The bank's service manager called to say the money will be reimbursed within four working days. So far, I haven't got a written statement from the bank," he said.
BPO employee S Kumar, who also banks with Citibank, complained that Rs 10,000 was withdrawn from his account from an ICICI Bank ATM in Jayanagar the same day. "No one other than me knows the PIN. I immediately called customer care and got my card blocked. I filed a complaint with the Jayanagar 5th Block police station and submitted a copy to Citibank," he said.
In another instance, Shajahan U, an HR associate with JP Morgan, got two SMSes informing him that Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 were debited from his ICICI Bank account. This money was withdrawn from an ICICI Bank ATM in Jayanagar.
Ayaz Sikander, a warehouse manager with an MNC, said Rs 24,100 was withdrawn from his Citibank account on February 4 from an ICICI Bank ATM in Jayanagar. Sikander filed an FIR with Jayanagar police.
A Citibank spokesperson said debit card-skimming incidents had been reported at a few non-Citibank ATMs in Bangalore. "We are proactively reaching out to those customers whose cards may have been compromised at these ATMs, to replace their debit cards," he said.
An ICICI Bank spokesperson said, "The compromised ATMs in Bangalore are of other banks and not of ours. Customers of all banks are free to use any ATM irrespective of which bank has installed the ATM. Hence, many such customers' cards across multiple banks have been impacted due to the skimming incident and ICICI Bank customers are one such small set of impacted customers."
The bank has reached out to customers who may have used the compromised ATMs and replaced their cards. HDFC Bank too has offered fresh cards to customers who have used the compromised ATMs. TOI couldn't get an official confirmation on which ATMs the criminals had managed to pick up the card data from.
A senior police official in Bangalore, who did not want to be named, said about 150 ATM skimming cases have come to the department's notice that are being investigated. He, however, could not say over what period these crimes had been committed.
Sources in the banking industry told TOI that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella institution under RBI for all retail payments in the country, will discuss the issue. NCPI is probing the matter and sent a letter to banks on Thursday identifying five affected ATMs in the city so far, said sources privy to the information.
Banks normally compensate customers who lose money, once it's confirmed that the loss was on account of problems on the bank's side.
Data can be compromised at ATMs using a card skimmer kept in the swipe channel to capture the particulars of debit cards. An invisible camera fitted at the ATM records images of the keypad when you key in your password. In some cases, attackers keep a fake keyboard on top of the actual keyboard of the ATM machine to capture the PIN. Once the fraudster has the account details including the PIN, he makes a duplicate debit card.
TOI
Metlife Insurance employee G Sreekumar, who has a Citibank account, said around 10.28am on February 4, Rs 10,000 was withdrawn from an ATM in RT Nagar. He was at home and the debit card was with him. "I received an alert on my mobile phone. Even as I wondered what was going on, I received a second alert about withdrawal of another Rs 5,000," Sreekumar said.
He later found through customer service that both transactions were carried out at a Citibank ATM on RT Nagar Main Road. "I filed an FIR with the RT Nagar police station. The bank's service manager called to say the money will be reimbursed within four working days. So far, I haven't got a written statement from the bank," he said.
BPO employee S Kumar, who also banks with Citibank, complained that Rs 10,000 was withdrawn from his account from an ICICI Bank ATM in Jayanagar the same day. "No one other than me knows the PIN. I immediately called customer care and got my card blocked. I filed a complaint with the Jayanagar 5th Block police station and submitted a copy to Citibank," he said.
In another instance, Shajahan U, an HR associate with JP Morgan, got two SMSes informing him that Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 were debited from his ICICI Bank account. This money was withdrawn from an ICICI Bank ATM in Jayanagar.
Ayaz Sikander, a warehouse manager with an MNC, said Rs 24,100 was withdrawn from his Citibank account on February 4 from an ICICI Bank ATM in Jayanagar. Sikander filed an FIR with Jayanagar police.
A Citibank spokesperson said debit card-skimming incidents had been reported at a few non-Citibank ATMs in Bangalore. "We are proactively reaching out to those customers whose cards may have been compromised at these ATMs, to replace their debit cards," he said.
An ICICI Bank spokesperson said, "The compromised ATMs in Bangalore are of other banks and not of ours. Customers of all banks are free to use any ATM irrespective of which bank has installed the ATM. Hence, many such customers' cards across multiple banks have been impacted due to the skimming incident and ICICI Bank customers are one such small set of impacted customers."
The bank has reached out to customers who may have used the compromised ATMs and replaced their cards. HDFC Bank too has offered fresh cards to customers who have used the compromised ATMs. TOI couldn't get an official confirmation on which ATMs the criminals had managed to pick up the card data from.
A senior police official in Bangalore, who did not want to be named, said about 150 ATM skimming cases have come to the department's notice that are being investigated. He, however, could not say over what period these crimes had been committed.
Sources in the banking industry told TOI that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella institution under RBI for all retail payments in the country, will discuss the issue. NCPI is probing the matter and sent a letter to banks on Thursday identifying five affected ATMs in the city so far, said sources privy to the information.
Banks normally compensate customers who lose money, once it's confirmed that the loss was on account of problems on the bank's side.
Data can be compromised at ATMs using a card skimmer kept in the swipe channel to capture the particulars of debit cards. An invisible camera fitted at the ATM records images of the keypad when you key in your password. In some cases, attackers keep a fake keyboard on top of the actual keyboard of the ATM machine to capture the PIN. Once the fraudster has the account details including the PIN, he makes a duplicate debit card.
TOI
