Cops detect 4 more ATMs that were looted

KOLKATA: The police have so far detected seven ATMs in the city in connection with withdrawal of money worth Rs 2 crore by hacking.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Jt. CP), Crime Murlidhar on Monday said: "The number of ATMs involved in the matter might go up as the concerned agency is identifying the hacked ATMs at the time of loading cash."

Apart from New Market, Jadavpur and Cossipore, four other ATMs were hacked in Phoolbagan, Bowbazar, Beniapukur and Behala.

So far the cops came to know that the motherboard of the ATM machines were hacked to disconnect the link between the bank's server and the ATM machine's server. After sabotaging the machine, miscreants established a localised network.

Following that they inserted an ATM-cum-debit card and put a command to dispense a large amount of cash which the machine can disburse at a time.

This way the accused persons operated the machines more than 50 times in each of the ATM counters to withdraw money.

As the connection with the bank's server was not established, the ATM machines failed to mark about how much money is present in the debit card holder's bank account.

According to Murlidhar, the process of hacking was completed within 10 to 15 minutes and then the money was withdrawn.

However, the money was not deducted from any individual's account.

He also informed that several months ago a gang was busted at Faridabad in Haryana which were operating in a similar manner.

Though police there nabbed a few of the gang members, others managed to escape. It is suspected that the gang members, who had managed to escape from Haryana, are operating in the city.

He also informed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had warned about the vulnerability of such ATMs which the agency did not pay heed to and did not update the system.

Police claimed that they have got some leads which would help them to crack the case soon.

Sources informed that from the CCTV footage a few miscreants were identified and a massive manhunt is on to nab them.

Controversy cropped up as the hood of the ATM machines can be opened using a master key which is available with the concerned agency.

Cops suspect that a few of the miscreants are either former bank employees or have good knowledge of the ATM machines' functioning system.