Police start probe into theft using ‘cloned ATM cards’

Police have started a probe over installing 'skimming devices' at ATM booths of United Commercial Bank (UCB) after incidents of cash withdrawals from ATM booths without the knowledge of clients of Eastern Bank Ltd (EBL).

A case has been filed with Dhaka’s Banani police station by UCB, which said that ‘skimming devices’ were installed at some of their ATM booths in Banani to steal confidential information of account holders.

Police’s Gulshan Zone Assistant Commissioner Rafiqul Islam said that the UCB authorities filed the case on Friday night.

He said that the bank has also provided footages captured by CCTV cameras from booths.

Banani police station OC Md Salahuddin, quoting case details, said that skimmers were used to steal user information from cards used at the booths and then use those details to make cloned cards.

 “We can't say more now for the sake of the investigations.”

Skimmers are small devices that can scan and store data from the magnetic stripe in debit or credit cards.

EBL had to close all its ATMs for six hours — from 12pm to 6pm — on Friday after ‘freak transactions’ were reported by several account holders.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury told the media on Saturday that they will also investigate the matter and no one will be spared if found involved. “These incidents are concerning for any bank.”

bdnews24.com journalist Mahbuba Akter Dina is among those who lost money.

The Badda resident said that two SMS notifications from the bank at 7:15am and 7:19am stated that Tk 80,000 was withdrawn by transactions done at Mutual Trust Bank’s ATM booth at Dhaka’s Mirpur.

"But the card was with me. And no one else knows the pin," she said.

“Finding it unusual, I called up EBL’s customer care department. They also confirmed the transactions,” added Dina.

EBL’s Head of Communications Ziaul Karim told bdnews24.com on Friday that they were trying to find out how many account holders were affected and tracked the booths from which transactions were made. “We have informed the Bangladesh Bank about the thefts.”

The central bank has called for temporary deactivation of the ATM cards of account holders who had lost money.

The National Payment Switch, which allows interbank electronic payments through ATMs, has been shut down for the time being.

According to Bangladesh Bank statistics, more than 9 million cards have been issued to clients by banks in Bangladesh, of which 8.5 million are debit cards.