ATM card fraud : Police granted 10 more days to intestigate fraud

KATHMANDU, MAR 28 -

The Appellate Court, Lalitpur on Wednesday granted police 10 more days starting from last Sunday to carry on with the investigation with three Indian nationals who were arrested on charge of withdrawing money from Nepal Investment Bank Limited (NIBL) by using fake ATM cards.

Suresh Singh Bista, Mohan Singh Bista and Chandra Singh Bista of Indranagar, Naintal Gram District, India, were arrested in Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur on Sunday and brought to Kathmandu on Monday.

The NIBL said that Rs 120,000 had been withdrawn in an unauthorised way from 7-8 ATM counters in New Delhi. The bank has termed the incident data compromise which means racketeers had information on bank’s clients’ data. Police have already arrested them after the NIBL complained to the police.

Police had seized 28 payment cards of ‘Diner Club International’ from them and a few ATM cards of Nepali commercial banks. Diner Club International is a global direct banking and payment services company which serves payment needs of select and affluent consumers.

A banker said that they might have incorporated the acquired data of banks into such cards to withdraw money. Having recovered from them ATM cards of several Nepali banks, including that of Himalayan Bank, Laxmi Bank, police also interrogated them about any unauthorised withdrawal from those banks.

“There have been 15 attempts of withdrawal from bank accounts by using fake ATM cards,” said HBL CEO Ashoke Rana. “But the fraudsters failed to withdraw money due to the bank’s introduction of ATM cards with chip-based security system.”

In the wake of the unauthorised withdrawal of a few million rupees three months ago, the bank have changed the ATM cards of its clients with chip-based security system.

“I have also asked other banks that have magnate-based security system to go for chip-based system,” added Rana. Laxmi bank’s CEO Suman Joshi admitted that police had inquired about the matter. “We checked all our accounts and found that there has not been any unauthorised withdrawal from our bank,” he added.

A senior police official said that it is need of the hour that banks be more serious towards their security system. “The customers should also be aware about possible frauds and should protect their pin number made available by the bank,” he added.

Laxmi’s Joshi stressed the need for insurance coverage to possible frauds in banking cards businesses.

Source: The Kathmandu Post