Police initiate probe after complaints of ghost transaction through ATM cards of 22 Jadavpur residents

Kolkata: More than 22 persons, all residents of Jadavpur police station area, have complained of cash withdrawals from their bank accounts by fraudsters through ATM transactions.

The victims have received messages on their respective mobile phones about the transactions, in which none of them were involved. The complaints have been lodged at Jadavpur police station, on the basis of which the bank fraud wing of Kolkata Police's detective department has started a probe.

The withdrawals that range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000, were done through multiple transactions for each of the victims. The passbook update of some of the affected customers has revealed that the ATM withdrawals were done from Delhi.

"Prima facie it appears that the card details were collected by fraudsters through two ATMs in Jadavpur area, where we had found skimming machines during April. We think that the gang had collected the card details earlier and did the operation on Sunday and Monday," a senior official of the detective department said.

It may be mentioned that Kolkata Police had arrested 8 persons of a Romanian gang for similar modus operandi a few months ago. However, a few members of the gang had eluded police. The sleuths are suspecting role of the same gang in the operation.

The police have already directed the concerned banks whose customers have been duped, to immediately take measures so that their customers change their pins at the earliest.

Shyamal Karmakar, one of the victims, said that Rs 20,000 has been withdrawn through two transactions from his account. He had informed the private bank from where the fraudulent transaction took place and they had assured him that refund will be made within 10 days.

"Rs 40,000 has been withdrawn from the salary account of my wife and I have lodged a complaint," said Barun Halder, another victim.

Bivas Chatterjee, special public prosecutor (Cyber Laws), said: "If the duped customers have not shared OTP or any data pertaining to their cards with anyone else then the bank is bound to refund the amount that they have lost within 10 days, as per RBI rules."

The top brass of the detective department have directed the police stations to patrol the ATMs in their respective areas and check on the security parameters.

The concern for the sleuths lie in the fact that most of the cards through which the money has been siphoned have EMU chip embedded in them, which provides an extra degree of security to the users.