Thursday, August 25, 2011

ATM skimmers are here to empty your a/c

ATM skimmers are here to empty your a/c

Horror of customers finding zero balance on the rise; experts say hackers using sophisticated devices


Jaslok hospital ward boy Santosh Patil was crestfallen. For, all his hard-earned savings of over several months vanished from his bank account without his knowledge.

The horror of automated teller machines (ATM) eating up a bank customer's money seems to have reached new heights: the phenomenon no longer seems to be limited to a particular bank or ATM.

While this problem was experienced earlier this month by an assistant inspector from Oshiwara police station at an AXIS bank ATM, several State Bank of India (SBI) customers have complained about their money disappearing in a similar manner.

Asistant inspector Sanjay More withdrew Rs10,000 but received an SMS alert saying Rs40,000 had been debited from his account.

However, some customers, including Patil, are more unfortunate than More as they could not get even a penny from their accounts.

"While my salary account is in a separate bank, I used to do my savings in this account. However, when I tried thrice for an ATM withdrawal at Opera House, my transactions were declined and the mini statement said that I had withdrawn Rs15,300," said a helpless Patil who failed to understand the technicalities involved.

Patil is not an isolated case in his hospital. Several others from it have met with the same fate and some of them are customers at the same branch of the bank at Pedder Road.

"We have received 10-15 similar complaints and we have got in touch with the other banks whose ATMs were used by our account holders," said Sunita, cash officer of the bank.

"While we are concerned with our customers' plight, they will have to seek the police's help to find out the reasons. We have contacted the cyber cell of the police from our end," said branch manager Dinesh Doke.

While investigations in the current cases are under way, the incidents that had occurred before has led the police to believe that the alleged hackers used ATM skimmers.

According to cyber experts, while hacking via these skimmers is rampant in Eastern Europe and America, it is just a matter of time before they raise their heads here in our country.

"It is a very sophisticated racket and there are different versions of the skimmers," said Sahir Hidayatullah, a cyber security consultant.

Explaining the modus operandi, Hidayatullah added: "Skimmers can be tiny, little pieces almost invisible to your eyes. Once you swipe your card, it reads all the data from the magnetic strip. There can also be a fake keypad over the normal keypad which stores the PIN in the skimming machine to be used later. While some machines have cameras, some are attached with a phone for all the details to be transmitted immediately."

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