Mumbai: Gang of seven withdraws Rs 6 lakh from ATMs with cloned cards

MUMBAI: A private bank lodged a police complaint after a gang used cloned debit cards and fraudulently withdrew Rs6.4 lakh from two of its ATMs over three days. MIDC police in Andheri (E) registered an FIR and are probing how the fraud was carried out.
The bank has a branch at Marol and the ATM is adjacent to it, with a day watchman but no one at night.
On October 10, vigilance staff alerted the manager there was a shortfall of Rs5.5 lakh at the ATM between October 4-6. An email was sent to the manager by the vigilance team with details of the transactions.
On October 4, a fraudulent withdrawal of Rs500 was made at the Marol ATM using a cloned debit card. The next day, 49 transactions were made with cloned cards where Rs4.9 lakh was totally withdrawn. On October 6, seven transactions totalling to Rs70,000 were made using cloned cards of banks.
The Marol branch decided to check CCTV footage of the ATM for October 4, 5 and 6. They found grabs of six to seven individuals entering the ATM kiosk at separate times and withdrawing money.
The bank found that a similar fraud had occurred at another of its ATMs in Chakala, Andheri (E). On October 5, Rs77,000 was withdrawn at the Chakala ATM and on October 6, Rs10,000 was withdrawn, both using cloned cards.
The bank manager approached MIDC police soon after that.