Bhubaneswar, Nov. 3: Police have made it clear that victims of ATM frauds can register complaints at their local police stations.

The step has been taken to avoid any confusion regarding jurisdiction of the police stations under which the bank account of a user exists.

Victims, who have been cheated of their money following disclosure of the 16 digit ATM card number to unknown callers, had to run from one police station to another to register their cases because of confusion over jurisdiction.

"Last month, an unknown caller rang me up claiming to be speaking from Mumbai and inquired about my bank account. He asked me to reveal my ATM card number failing which my account would be blocked. No sooner than I gave him the number, I received two messages on my cell phone about Rs 7,000 having been withdrawn using my debit card," alleged Prabhat Bisoi, who is employed with a private firm here.

The ordeal of Prabhat did not end there. He first visited Saheed Nagar police station to lodge a complaint as he had his account with a nationalised bank, which comes under the police station of the area. "The cops in Saheed Nagar asked me to lodge the complaint with Nayapalli where I was staying. When I went to Nayapalli police station, they asked me to lodge a complaint with the cyber cell in Cuttack saying that the offence falls under their jurisdiction," alleged the victim. After making rounds of several police stations, he finally managed to lodge a complaint at Nayapalli.

Sources said that around a dozen of such cases have been registered in different police stations of Bhubaneswar in past three months while a large number of such cases have gone unreported. "Most of the time police are reluctant to lodge such complaints and ask the victims to visit the cyber cell in Cuttack. They do so because they think that by registering the complaint, the number of cases in the police station would go up," alleged city-based lawyer Chitta Ranjan Das.

Deputy commissioner of police, Satyabrata Bhoi said clear direction had been given to the police stations concerned to lodge complaints related to ATM frauds. "We have also asked the bank officials to send frequent messages to their customers warning them not to disclose their 16-digit card number," said Bhoi.