Three capital residents, who had last used a State Bank of India ATM at Hinoo under Doranda police station on Friday, lost a total of Rs 1,59,400 to cyber criminals by Sunday.
Nand Dulal Dasgupta (48), who stays in Chutia and works at a private advertisement agency in Hinoo, lost Rs 54,000 on Saturday.
“On Saturday evening, I received two SMSes informing me that Rs 34,000 was transferred to the account of one Shashi Bhushan and the remaining amount was withdrawn from an ATM at Kumardubi in Dhanbad. On Friday, I had used the State Bank ATM at Hinoo to withdraw Rs 1,000. I neither received any fraud call nor shared details of my debit card with anybody. I also used an EVM chip card issued by the bank,” Dasgupta said.
He said he immediately blocked his card and lodged a complaint at the SBI’s Hinoo branch where he had his account.
“I am going to lodge an FIR. I have asked the bank to return my money,” Dasgupta added.
Pramod Kumar (29), a resident of Shukla Colony in Hinoo, lost Rs 5,400 on Sunday.
“I had withdrawn Rs 1,000 from the Hinoo ATM on Friday. On Saturday, I received a message that the amount was withdrawn from my account. My card was cloned to make purchase from Big Bazaar in Dhanbad. I lost my job last month and don’t have much money left in my account. I have lodged a police complaint,” Kumar said.
Confirming the serial cyber fraud, officer in-charge of Doranda police station Rajeev Kumar said three victims had contacted him on Monday.
Kumar said, a woman called Nusrat, a resident of Doranda, came to the police station on Monday alleging that Rs 1 lakh was withdrawn from the SBI account of her husband that she used to operate.
She said she had last used the debit card at the Hinoo ATM on Friday.
“I will take up the cases one by one. I have the asked the lady to lodge a complaint. There is something wrong with the ATM. Ranchi police will ask the SBI to either close down the kiosk or improve security arrangement,” the OC said.
Incidentally, the State Bank ATM at Hinoo doesn’t have a security guard, which makes it more vulnerable to skimming.
Skimming is a theft of card information through a small device, known as a skimmer, which is usually fitted at the top of the ATM’s card reader.
The device steals the information of a debit card during a legitimate ATM transaction.