Kolkata: Retired IB officer loses lakhs in ATM fraud

KOLKATA: A 73-year-old former gazetted officer in the Intelligence Bureau has alleged that he was duped lakhs after his ATM card got “compromised” at a nationalised bank kiosk in Kolkata.

The complainant has alleged that he has been losing Rs 20,000 from his account daily for the past 29 days.

The victim – Anand Swaroop Gupta – has now lodged a complaint with the bank (UA429249720999) and is contemplating moving the cyber cell of the Kolkata Police.

Though the incident has yet again raised the spectre of skimming, the bank’s security officers said they would comment only after a thorough probe.

“It seems someone managed to change his cellphone number before doing the transactions. This is the reason he did not receive SMS alerts. This, also, thus is different from the traditional ATM skimming where the accused do not have access to the victim’s mobile number,” explained a bank official.

“The biggest shock of his life came on December 30, 2018 when he went for a passbook update and realised he has been robbed of all his potential savings. He realised he was duped when he went to withdraw funds on December 29 and then the passbook update on December 30 explained that each day Rs 20,000 was being withdrawn from his bank account for the past 29 days,” Gupta's daughter Nidhi, a chartered accountant, wrote in her formal complaint to the bank adding how this has left her severely ill mother distraught and without any money. A copy of the complaint letter is with TOI.

The money allegedly was withdrawn from different location both within the city and outside like Khardah and even Gaya.

“The last time he used the ATM card was on November 30 last year at the Prince Anwar Shah Road branch to withdraw funds from his pension account. We suspect it was here where his card got compromised and in the process the crooks changed the number with the last four digits of his cellphone number. The bank neither informed the card holder that a new phone number had been added to the account nor the fact that everyday Rs 20,000 was being withdrawn from different locations. There should have been some kind of alert for such heavy withdrawals besides SMSes,” claimed Nidhi.

“We demand this case be taken up immediately and that the funds refunded to us as quickly as possible we are not responsible for the skimming and fraud. We will be filing and official complaint at our local Police station as well and we are seeking immediate attention in this fraud case,” Nidhi told TOI.