Unusual theft: Fraudsters trick bank server, withdraw Rs 2.95L from ATM

Team Udayavani, Oct 21, 2022, 10:56 AM IST

In a rather unusual kind of theft, conmen managed to withdraw Rs 2.95 lakh from an ATM but the withdrawal never got debited to their account.

If you are wondering how this was possible, all the fraudsters had to do was switch off the power supply of the machine at the moment that it dispensed cash. Resultantly the bank server got tricked into believing that the transaction had failed even when it had taken place and the money wasn’t debited from the account.

The incident took place at Federal Bank ATM in Chikkajala.

The ATM fraud came to light when the bank staff noticed a discrepancy in the amount of cash available in the ATM cassette was differing from the bank records. There was a cash deficit of Rs 2.95 lakhs and thus the bank staff suspected that fraud had been committed.

Upon checking the CCTV footage, the bank officials noticed that on October 14 one man used a debit card to withdraw money while the person accompanying him was seen standing near the electrical outlet inside the kiosk. When the machine begins to dispense cash the other person switches off the power supply and switches it on seconds later.

The duo withdrew cash from the ATM using the same modus operandi again on October 15.

The Federal Bank branch head filed a police complaint in this regard on October 18. The complaint mentions that the fraudsters used two debit cards — card number 4048346717895778, issued to Yasir Arafat, a resident of Faridabad, Haryana having account number 998011474884098; and card number 4048346709773009, issued to Waseem Akram, a resident of Gurugram, Haryana having account number 99980119538580.

The accounts had been opened online through video-based KYC verification, according to the bank official. The details of the account holders and the CCTV footage from the ATM premises have been given to the police for investigation.

Police said that they are trying to nab the culprits at the earliest.

With DHNS inputs