Angul, Oct. 14: Frauds posing as bank officials are collecting ATM numbers and the secret PIN from gullible customers and withdrawing money from their accounts.

At least five such cases have been reported from the State Bank of India, Talcher branch, and three more have been reported from Angul, police sources said.

These people ring up prospective victims posing as bank officials.

“Around midday on October 12, I got a call from an unknown mobile phone saying my SBI account had encountered a problem and it needed to be fixed. He asked me my ATM card number and PIN, which I gave. I later found that Rs 56,000 had been debited from my account,” said Talcher resident Basant Maharana.

“We received the complaint from Maharana yesterday and we immediately blocked his ATM,” said chief manager of Talcher SBI N. Biswal.

In another incident, Mayurbhanj police yesterday arrested three frauds who had been duping people on the assurance of multiplying their money.