Over 2,300 ATMS in Capital unguarded

NEW DELHI: From skimming to uprooting and robberies, unguarded ATMS are a prime target for criminals in the city but it seems that authorities are yet to learn their lesson. According to recent data from the Delhi Police, more than 2,300 ATMS in Delhi operate without security guards. According to the data, there are over 5,700 ATMS in the city. Around 950 ATMS had armed guards whereas 2,527 have unarmed guards and over 2,300 have no guards. According to senior officers, regular meetings with bank authorities are conducted to ensure that their ATMS are guarded and have proper CCTVS installed inside the booths. “Not only during the lockdown but at any point in time, unguarded ATMS are unsafe. There are cases where criminals keep an eye on people withdrawing money from such ATMS and later target them,” an official said.

Another official said that criminals used industrial-grade tools and gas-cutters to uproot ATMS which is not a time-consuming process for them. In most of the cases, one of the gang members keeps an eye for ATMS in isolated areas during his day job and then in the night they commit the crime. “We have also heard that videos on how to rob ATMS are also available on the Darkweb,” the official said. In Delhi, several cases of card cloning have been reported along with ATM skimming where both Indians, as well as foreigners, were involved in the crime. In March, a 29-year-old Romanian national was arrested from Saket for ATM skimming. Explaining his modus operandi, a senior official said the accused used to install a skimming device and a spy camera having memory capacity inside lonely unguarded ATMS to get credentials of genuine ATM card users. Later, he withdrew the amount from targeted ATMS. From his possession, eight cloned plastic cards were recovered.

Last year a 27-year-old man, who was wanted in 15 cases of uprooting and looting ATMS in different states, was arrested from Lado Sarai. A senior officer, explaining his modus operandi, said, “The accused along with his other associates would roam in the area during the night to identify such ATMS. Usually, they targeted ATMS located at isolated spots where guards were not posted.” They used to spray ink or colour at the lens of cameras installed at ATMS to make it ineffective. With the help of gas cutters and other equipment, they would then uproot the ATMS and get away with it in their vehicles.