August 10, 2018
Nadimul Haque speaks on the need to curb the menace of ATM frauds
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Over the past one month, there have been 78 reported cases of ATM frauds in Kolkata, the cumulative amount being around Rs 20 lakh. ATMs were fitted with skimmers to steal data from debit cards that were used there. Skimming devices copy data from debit cards, including information encrypted in the magnetic strip.
The three ATMs suspected to have been fitted with skimmers were used for transactions with at least 610 ATM cards during the period they remained “compromised”. It is practically impossible to ascertain if a particular ATM card has been compromised till someone uses it’s duplicate to withdraw money.
Last week, two Romanian nationals were arrested in connection with the ATM frauds. They fraudulently withdrew around Rs 18-20 lakh from different bank accounts at unmanned ATMs using ‘cloned’ cards.
ATM frauds using cloned cards are on the rise across the country, with several Romanians and Nigerians being arrested in similar cases in places like Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
Banks need to implement anti-skimming and whitelisting solutions. Security measures such as BIOS password, disabling USB ports, disabling auto-run facility, applying the latest patches of operating system and other softwares, terminal security solutions, are some of the measures which could be made mandatory for banks and white label ATM operators. We need to sure such fraudulent practices are eliminated for good and honest tax-paying citizens do not lose their hard earned money.
