Complicity of bankers in use of cloned ATM cards not ruled out

City police has received at least eight complaints, including three on August 23 alone, in which Rs 3.20 lakh were withdrawn from the accounts of SBI customers through different ATMs with the help of cloned cards.

Not ruling out the possibility of the role of bank officials in these fraudulent transactions, a police official here said footages of CCTV cameras installed in the ATMs are being examined to find a clue to crack these cases.

"We are investigating the matter and we have posed some questions to SBI officials seeking details regarding agency and its employees who load cash in ATMs," DSP (city police) Satbir Singh said.

According to police, unscrupulous elements would insert a card reader device in the ATMs slot and place a micro-camera behind the ATM to record the password entered by a cardholder. On the basis of information, they would produce a cloned ATM card and withdraw money.

Despite a series of frauds taking place with SBI customers in the city, the bank maintained that its ATM cum Debit cards were fully secure and meet the standards set by RBI.

Significantly, SBI has over one lakh customers in the city in 40 branches.

Even as police pointed out the absence of security guards outside the ATMs that may have helped the miscreants in the fraudulent withdrawals, SBI has still not decided about hiring guards outside offsite ATMs.

"No decision has been taken for stationing guards at 65 offsite ATMs," a SBI official said seeking anonymity.