In a major identity theft that has among others jolted the very law enforcers in Maharashtra, unidentified fraudsters have hacked into 29 different Axis Bank accounts, including 12 operated by Mumbai policemen, and withdrawn to the tune Rs13 lakh through multiple ATM outlets in Greece.
Informed police sources said on Friday that the fraud — better known as skimming in banking theft parlance — came to light after several of the
city-based Axis Bank customers received text messages from their bank on the night of June 12, showing cash withdrawals from their accounts that in reality they had not made.
Following up on the text messages, many of the victim customers either visited the bank ATM outlets or contacted the bank the following morning and much to their disbelief, got confirmation that cash had indeed been withdrawn from their accounts in Euro currency.
Ironically enough, at least a dozen police officials — having their salary-linked accounts with Axis Bank — found that they had fallen victim to the identity theft. However, it was not confirmed as to the exact sums of cash withdrawn from the accounts of policemen.
Chastened by the development, the Mumbai Police set up a special team, headed by Deputy Commissioner Zone III Vinay Deshmukh, to probe the fraud. As a first measure, the investigation team has sought details from the Axis Bank management as to the nature and extent of the fraud.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the fraudsters might have stolen the debit card data of various accounts from ATMs in April and May this year. Using the data, the fraudsters have cloned debit cards and used them to make withdrawals. “We have a reason to believe that the actual withdrawals began on June 12,” a senior police official said.
The investigators are not ruling out the possibility of the fraudsters having “cloned” the debit cards in the city itself and used them for cash withdrawals through multiple ATM outlets of Greece and other places in Europe.
The city police will soon register an FIR in connection with the fraud.
Reacting to the reports of fraud, an official spokesperson of Axis Bank said: “A small number of our customers' accounts (less than 50) have been impacted through transactions at compromised ATMs in Mumbai belonging to multiple banks. We have reversed the impact in all such customers' accounts with immediate effect, to ensure they are not inconvenienced.”
The Axis Bank has assured its customers that they will reimburse the amounts withdrawn from their accounts.
“We are undertaking a full investigation into the incident and are working closely with law enforcement officials in this regard. We wish to assure our customers that Axis Bank stands committed to protecting their interests and that we have the necessary systems to ensure the same,” the spokesperson said.
On their part, the police are also trying to ascertain if there had been any internal leak of data account-related secret pin-codes and pass-codes of debit cards of customers, from bank officials to fraudsters.
According to sources, the city cyber branch officials have tracked down one of the “cloned” debit cards used by the fraudsters to an Axis bank ATM outlet located at Colaba in south Mumbai.
The investigators, with the help of bank officials, are trying to trace the debit card swipe records of ATM outlets based in Greece where the fraudsters are believed to have made the cash withdrawals using the “cloned” cards.
The investigators have a strong reason to believe that the fraudsters had resorted to “skimming” to gain access to debit card details. “Skimming” is illegal copying of information from the magnetic strip of a credit or debit ATM card by using scanning equipment.
Having skimmed the card, the fraudsters can create a fake or “cloned” card. “Card skimming is also used by fraudsters to steal the customer's identity and use it to commit identity frauds like borrowing money, or taking loans etc. Skimming can happen at ATMs, hotels and restaurants,” a senior police official said.