Card skimming at six ATM booths from three banks  

Skimming devices were planted in six ATM booths of three banks to steal card information and create duplicates, Bangladesh Bank investigators have found.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 14 Feb 2016, 02:50 PM
Updated : 14 Feb 2016, 06:45 PM

“We’re certain from our primary findings that these scams were pulled off at six ATM booths belonging to three separate banks including Eastern Bank Limited. Our investigators were at these banks and booths this morning,” central bank spokesperson Subhankar Saha told bdnews24.com on Sunday.

The names of the other two banks have not been disclosed ‘for the sake of investigation’ but United Commercial Bank has already filed a case at Banani Police Station saying skimming devices were set up in their booths.

The banks, Saha said, will have to continue providing ATM and other services. Those who do shut them down voluntarily will be looked into.

The incident of ATM fraud is forcing people in Bangladesh, who were beginning to feel at ease with Internet banking and payment using credit or debit cards, to think again about such transactions.

Freak transactions using ATMs reported on Thursday and Friday is said to have cost EBL clients hundreds of thousands of taka.
bdnews24.com journalist Mahbuba Akter Dina said on Friday, she received two notifications from the bank that Tk 80,000 in total were withdrawn from her account from Mutual Trust Bank’s ATM at Shewraparha.
Shocked in the knowledge that her card was with her, she called EBL’s customer care. The bank then stopped withdrawals using ATMs from other banks after several other cases were reported.
A person whose bank is connected with the central bank’s National Payment Switch can withdraw money from the ATM booths of 47 other banks also linked with the Switch.
Bangladesh has nine million card holders, and more than eight million of them are debit cards. ATM services are offered from 7,000 booths across the country, according to the central bank.
How they scam
The frauds planted video cameras inside the ATM as well as skimming devices they used to steal card information and watch people enter their PINs on the entry pad, the central bank said in a media statement.   
They forged duplicate copies of these cards to steal the cash.
EBL said client information have been stolen from two of their booths in Gulshan.
The bank, in a statement on Sunday, said they first froze 21 cards after clients reported unauthorised transactions but it later moved to deactivate all cards used in those two ATMs.
A scam like this will require all card information which a scanner or skimming device can get, said Strategy Officer for Fiber@Home, Sumon Ahmed Sabir.
The scanner set up near a card reader on an ATM machine copies a client’s information when a card is swiped on the magnetic strip. The information taken from a scanner is copied on another chip on a blank card, said Ahmed, an expert on microchip security.   
But withdrawing money still requires a PIN. Thieves plant tiny cameras near the entry pad, speakers or in other places where they cannot be easily noticed.
People who use ATMs are advised to cover the entry pad with their other hand.
“ATM skimming happens frequently abroad. Bank’s own employees and booth security officials are found to be involved in 90 percent of the cases.”
“It’s not easy to plant these devices if there is efficient security at the gate.”  
The central bank has instructed banks to install anti-skimming devices, monitor the surveillance footages, and disallow third parties from repairing the machines.
The banks whose ATMs were compromised have been told to make a list of clients whose data have been stolen between Feb 7 and 14, and also provide them with new cards in place of old ones.     
The central bank said it was working to determine the banks’ liability in compensating the fraud victims.
The EBL has also said it will fully compensate those whose money has been stolen.