Silchar July 16: The SBI’s regional office here has warned all its branches in the four districts of south Assam on instances of siphoning off money from its customers’ accounts.

According to the SBI’s regional manager for Silchar region, Kanai Lal Bhattacharjee, at least 14 of its customers were duped of Rs 4.15 lakh from their accounts through netbanking this year.

Ranjit Kumar Choudhury, a resident of College Road, had responded to a telephone call and gave his ATM card number and its PIN code. Next week, the Sonai Road SBI branch informed him that he was debited for buying three plane tickets in the name of three persons he does not know.

Banbir Sinha, a retired Assam forest department official, was duped of Rs 22,430 when he revealed his ATM card number to one caller, who identified himself as an officer from SBI’s Guwahati zonal office.

Bhattacharjee said most of these cases took place in SBI branches at New Silchar, Sonai Road, Silchar Bazaar and Silchar Main.

The SBI here had warned its customers here that they under any circumstances should not reveal the ATM card number and its PIN number to anyone.

Police have started investigations into these cases in Cachar district with the help of SBI officials.

South Assam deputy-inspector of police Vinod Kumar said four training centres would be set up in the Northeast in Guwahati, Agartala, Shillong and Gangtok to train police officials in tackling cyber crimes.