Colombian fixes device to cash deposit machine, steals Rs 17.7 lakh

Police have detected a new kind of ATM fraud in which cash is stolen by hacking the bank's servers with a device.

A woman of Colombian nationality is accused of defrauding the State Bank of India (SBI) of Rs 17.71 lakh with this technique in Hegdenagar, Northeast Bengaluru, last week.

Sampigehalli police arrested the woman, identified as Leidy Stefania Munoz Monsalve, 23, on Friday while investigating a complaint filed by Sushil Kumar Singh, a manager at SBI, on January 11.

Singh stated in the complaint that he received a telephone call from a man on January 10. The caller said he had received Rs 1 lakh while trying to withdraw Rs 1,500 from an ATM located on 80 feet road in Hegdenagar.

Singh rushed to the ATM along with his colleagues to investigate the matter and switched off all the machines at the kiosk as a precautionary measure. The next morning, he found a device fixed to a cash deposit machine (CDM) at the kiosk. A scrutiny of the cash balance revealed that Rs 17,71,500 was missing.

The bank staff checked the CCTV footage of the kiosk and the surrounding areas and found that a woman had walked into the ATM around 2.25 pm on January 11 and fixed the device to the CDM.

The device directly hacks the bank's servers connected to ATMs, enabling the fraudsters to withdraw the money filled into the kiosk. This method is different from skimming whereby customer's data is stolen and money withdrawn.

Police sifted through the clues and tracked down Monsalve. They also recovered the stolen money and have taken her into custody for further questioning. They are trying to track down her accomplices.

This is not the first time that the Colombian national was arrested. She was previously arrested in early 2020 by Kothanur police over 31 house break-in thefts reported from Sampigehalli, Vidyaranyapura, Yelahanka, Chikkajala, Rajanukunte and Anekal police station limits.

Monsalve came to India on a tourist visa but her passport and visa were seized after Kothanur police arrested her. She, however, got bail later.

The Hegdenagar case, along with three others from Banaswadi, Halasuru and Nelamangala, appears to be her first foray in cybercrime, police said.