Conmen preying on new ATM card users

NO OFFICIAL COMPLAINTS FILED YET, BUT PEOPLE HAVE LOST SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNTS AFTER DIVULGING THEIR ATM CARD DETAILS TO STRANGERS

ANAND OBEROI
GANGTOK, 07 Feb: Con artists appear to be preying with some degree of success on new ATM card users in the State, especially the elderly who are not familiar with the use of their debit cards. Laying out a simple plan of hanging around ATM counters pretending to be withdrawing cash, from what has been pieced together thus far, they arrive as timely assistance to new ATM users fumbling with their cards. After they have punched in the pin code for these users and completed the transactions for them [something which also reveals the deposit status to them], they take the game to the next level. Pretending to fumble, they make the target drop the ATM card and when fetching it for them, exchange the card with a dummy. The entire bank balance of the ‘hit’ is then theirs for the taking.
Of course, the con-artists need not even bag the ATM card, because with the account details, including the pin-number acquired, they can use the person’s bank account to complete there own online transaction.
Interestingly, no official police complaint has been filed on this con yet, but NOW! has managed to confirm two such incidents, one from Singtam and the other from Gangtok. It may also be mentioned here that similar tricks have been reported from across the country where they have been a nuisance for a while now.
In one instance of this sleight of hand con, a lady, when she received her updated bank statement, learnt that her account had been cleaned of Rs. 45,000 through ATM transactions she did not make. In her case, the transactions were online, the ATM details used up make railway bookings.
The lady, it is informed, has filed a complaint with the bank in question and also with the Reserve Bank of India office in Gangtok and an internal enquiry is reportedly underway at present.
In the other instance, another lady walked in to withdraw cash from the ATM, but when she checked her account balance, discovered that it had decreased by Rs. 20,000 since her last visit without her having made any such withdrawal.
Both complainants have refrained from filing a police complaint and are pursuing the matter with the bank at present. Word on the racket has however spread and reached even the cops.
OC, Sadar Thana, PI Tshering Sherpa, when contacted, confirmed that no official complaint has been filed with them, but added that even they have heard of the incidents and that lookouts have been posted to ATM counters to report back any “suspicious activities”.
“We will be able to investigate the case only if we have an official complaint, however, what also seems to be the case is that people losing money after divulging their ATM card details to strangers is not a new thing elsewhere, and it is primarily carelessness which is to blame,” he stated.
In this regard, he cautioned people against sharing their ATM card details with strangers.
Meanwhile, RBI officials share that the con is simple and already quite common elsewhere in the country where a person is planted at an ATM counter acting as someone trying to complete a transaction while others are waiting in line. Once they zero in on a potential victim, they act as if they are helping him/ her out and ferret out account details from the unsuspecting person.
“The conman actually pushes the person holding the card and once the card or the purse is dropped all over the ATM counter floor, the conman actually exchanges the card and since they have already found out the pin-code number, they can now draw money from someone else’s account,” they explain.