Kerala police has requested the Interpol’s help to catch three suspected Romanian skimmers who withdrew nearly half a million rupees from the bank accounts of more than 20 using cloned ATM cards.
They identified Bogdean Florian, 25, Gabriel Marian, 27, and Cristian Victor, 26, from the CCTV footage from the ATM kiosk while planting skimmers and the camera to copy PINs and while checking into a hotel.
Inspector General Manoj Abraham said they installed the device on one ATM and withdrew cash in Mumbai.
They were in the state capital between June 10 and July 30 and were staying in the seaside tourist resort of Kovalam.
“We have sought the help of Interpol to trace them,” Abraham, who heads a special investigation team, told reporters here before leaving for Mumbai for further investigation,” Abraham said.
“The preliminary assessment is that they made off with anywhere between Rs 400,000 and Rs 500,000 withdrawn using duplicate cards with stolen skimmer data.” He asked all customers who used the ATM to change their PIN immediately.
Top officers and cyber and technical experts visited the ATM at busy Althara Junction, Vellayambalam, in the city and collected evidence.
City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar said police were trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the three hi-tech thieves. “We are also probing whether more persons were involved,” he said, ruling out chances of local assistance. At least 22 people have so far lodged complaints saying money was withdrawn from their account,” he said.
Many of the customers who were duped came to know about the fraud after they received a text message on Sunday, informing that money was withdrawn from their accounts.
The footage indicates that the three entered and fixed the skimmer and camera at 6.30 am on June 30.
“I had last used the ATM on July 27. On August 7, I received a message that Rs 45,000 had been withdrawn from my account from Mumbai,” said Raja Krishna, a complainant. “The next morning, I complained to the branch manager. The bank has assured to return my money.”
The police said the electronic device took a picture when the customer keyed in his secret PIN number, while the device placed in the card reader got the information of that particular card.
“The state police chief has informed all bank officials to see that they conduct an immediate inspection of all ATM kiosks to ensure that everything is fine,” Abraham said.
The ATM belonged to India’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India.
Its associate bank with the biggest network of ATMs in Kerala, State Bank of Travancore, has offered to return customers the money they lost.
“Our customers will not lose their money,” SBT’s chief general manager S Adikesavan said.
“We have also given instructions to the branch heads across the the state to check the ATMs and ensure that they were secure.”
Skimmers usually obtain data from the card reader placed over the ATM’s real card slot and when one slides the card into the machine the counterfeit reader scans and stores all the information on the magnetic strip.
They also hid a spy camera, in this case behind the smoke alarm, to capture the personal identification number on the card and gain full access to the bank account.
A skimming scheme was introduced to the state in a 2009 Malayalam movie starring Prithviraj, Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves, but such a fraud was being reported in the state for the first time now though many fall victim to Internet scams.