Hackers siphon off huge amounts from SBI customers’ accounts

In a major security breach, a huge amount of money has been siphoned off from the savings account of as many as five SBI customers from the city and its adjoining places so far by hacking their debit cards.

After the Uluberia incident in which one youth was duped by the hacker, four other persons have come up with the same compliant saying that huge amount of money was withdrawn from their accounts. Many of these victims did not even share their ATM password or Debit card number with anyone.

Senior SBI officials urged the customers not to share their ATM password or the debit card number to the people who call on the customers posing themselves as bank staff and seek the passwords. 

A senior official of the SBI on Saturday said that there was no malware found in the technology used by the SBI. He also assured that they would investigate the transaction trail of the victims whose money has been siphoned off. 

The official, however, said that it was found that the accused had received the personal details from the customers and then withdrew money from their accounts. Many of the customers did not even receive any message alert that their account has been debited with a huge amount of money.

Sushmita Das, a school teacher and a resident of Teghoria area lodged a complaint at Baguiati police station after Rs 82,000 was withdrawn from her SBI account. She told the police that she did not receive any phone calls from a person seeking the personal details. 

She updated her bank pass book on October 19 when she found that she had a balance of Rs 3.53 lakh. But when she withdrew Rs 1,000 last Friday she found that around Rs 82,000 has been siphoned off from her account. On the basis of her complaint, Baguiati police station and the cyber crime department of the Bidhannagar police started a probe into the incident.

Mrinal Mondal from Santoshpur also registered a complaint with the police after around Rs 2.19 lakh was withdrawn from his SBI account.

He told the police that on October 15 he received a telephone call from an unknown number and asked for his personal details. The caller also threatened him that his ATM card had lapsed and hence he required the personal details and threatened him that his account would be closed if he does not provide the details.

The caller claimed that he was calling from the head office of SBI in Mumbai. Later he came to know that the entire amount was taken out through several withdrawals. He lodged a FIR at Jadavpur police station and also met the senior officials at the cyber crime cell at Lalbazar.  

Sikha Mukherjee from Howrah’s Bali also alleged that Rs 35,000 was withdrawn from her account after a person got her personal details over phone. Partik Chakraborty of Baghajatin has also been victim of cyber crime.