Magnetic card protector to avert ATM thefts

KATHMANDU, May 3:

ATM or STC cards are used to avert the risk arising from carrying cash. But such cards have also come under the threats in recent days with the rise of fraudsters tracing the data once the cards are swiped in the ATM machines by their rightful owners.

Some months back, an organized gang had stolen money from ATM machines of a number of banks by making duplicate ATM cards. At a time when the banks and its beneficiaries are fretting over the security of the ATM cards, also known as the ´plastic money´, the ´magnetic card protector´ has been launched in Nepal for the first time in a bid to make the use of ATM cards more secure.

Supernova Intercontinental Nepal has introduced the card protector in Nepal which is already in use in the world market. The magnetic card protector which is a production of a Turkish company SD Group is placed in the inner part of the ATM machines to avert the data and money theft.

According to Managing Director of Supernova Intercontinental Nepal Rohit Kumar Bohora, they have introduced the card protector in Nepal in the wake of rising cases of money theft through ATM and POS cards.

“We have come up with this card protector as a shield while there are growing complaints of money thefts through cards. This measure will make the card users secure and confident about the protection of their money,” he added.

The gang members usually put the duplicate card reader above the real card reader of the ATM machines and steal away the data left by the card users which they retrieve from the encoder.

Similarly, they also place the separate duplicate number pad above the keypad of the ATM machine which helps them to trace the passwords from the fingerprints. Through the password and the cards they siphone off money from ATM machines.

Last year, two fraudsters-Rabin Rimal and Ritesh Rimal- have stolen Rs 8 million of film actor Jivan Luitel´s mother-in-law Rupma Sharma, monk Raju Lama and Ramdel Lama´s bank accounts from Nabil Bank´s ATM.

They had told their modus operandi to the police after their arrest.

Police investigation had revealed that the gangs even import the card and card readers from Thailand for the ATM robbery. The fraudsters generally prefer the ATM machines which do not have CCTV installed, according to the police.

Bohora said that the card protector cannot be tampered upon or broken. “If somebody tries to tamper or break the machine, the card reader system of the ATM machine automatically goes down,” he said.

Supernova has taken the authorized dealership of the card protector for Nepal including some other Asian nations.

Bohora told Republica that Supernova has been providing services in Hong Kong in collaboration with CVO Electronics Group there.

“We have installed magnetic card protector in more than 800 machines in Hong Kong. We will start the sales of card protector in India after Nepal,” he said.

Claiming that the cases of ATM thefts have gone down in recent days due to the consciousness of the card users, Bhaskar Mani Gnawali, spokesperson of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), said that the new technology will help to add more security features for the protection of money.

Bohora said that they are installing card protector in 10 ATM machines of different banks in Nepal. “We adopt different procedures for different model of ATM machines. For installation purpose, we bring foreign experts,” he said. He added that the ´Magnetic Card Protector´ costs Rs 175,000 to Rs 260,000 per ATM machine in the Nepali market.

According to latest data of NRB, there are 1,565 ATM machines of various banks with 3.75 million debit card and 54,064 credit card users.

Source: Republica