Incidents of ATM hacking continue unabated in state as hackers target two more account holders

The incidents of bank fraud in the state seem to be continuing unchecked with another person registering a complaint in a police station at Haldibari in Cooch Behar on Tuesday.

Nearly ten such incidents of bank fraud have been reported in the state in the last five days. The repeated incidents of siphoning money in this fashion pose serious questions on the security of the customers.

Gokul Basak who has an account with Haldibari branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) lodged the compliant after nearly Rs one lakh was withdrawn from his account. In his complaint he mentioned that on October 18 and 19, the money was withdrawn on a number of occasions. Following the incident the victim blocked his ATM card on October 22. After starting the investigation police found that the amount was withdrawn in nine separate transactions.

Basak who a studio photographer has broken down after his hard earned money was withdrawn in this manner. He has also lodged a complaint with the branch of the bank. He said that he never shared his ATM password with anybody. He had never purchased any item online. Police have started an investigation in this regard. A daily wage labourer from Malbazar in Jalpaiguri has also fallen victim of the cyber crime. Introducing himself as the bank manager someone called on his number and got the pin number of his ATM card.

It may be mentioned that two more incidents of bank fraud have been reported each from South Dinajpur and Murshidabad on last Sunday. Altogether Rs 1.5 lakh was siphoned off from the SBI account of the two customers.

Aswini Das, a retired teacher from Patiram in South Dinajpur lodged a complaint with the police saying that Rs 80,000 has been withdrawn from his two SBI accounts. The other victim is from Salar 

area in Murshidabad. Around Rs 67,000 had been siphoned off from his SBI account. Both the victims have told the police that they received phone calls from some persons who introduced themselves as bank employees.

They told the customers that they needed the personal details relating to their account, failing which the ATM facilities would be blocked. Both the customers eventually shared their personal details with the callers and finally found that the money had been withdrawn from their account.