Card switched at ATM kiosk, senior citizen robbed of ₹1.2L

› Two men were already inside the kiosk.they must have fiddled with the machine, because later on, a message on the screen stated that my debit card PIN was invalid. HARBAKSH SINGH, victim

GREATER NOIDA: An 65-year-old man has alleged that two persons exchanged his debit card at an ATM kiosk with a fake one and fraudulently withdrew ₹1.2 lakh from his account in two days. The victim, Harbaksh Singh, is a resident of Sector Pi in Greater Noida.

Singh said that he had visited an ATM kiosk in Sector Alpha 1 in Greater Noida on September 18. “Two persons, who seemed to be in their early twenties, were already inside the kiosk. I was not able to withdraw money from the ATM. They asked me to press the card harder into the machine. They must have fiddled with the machine somehow because a message on the screen stated my debit card PIN was invalid,” he said in the complaint.

The victim said that on the pretext of helping him, the men exchanged his card with another. “I returned home after the failed transaction,” he said. The victim said that two days later, he received a call from the bank informing him that ₹1.20 lakh had been withdrawn in multiple transactions from his account.

“I informed the bank official that I had not used the card for any such transaction,” he said, adding that he asked the bank official to block the card. Sujeet Upadhyaya, Station House Officer, Sector Beta 2 police station, said a case has been registered under Section 66 of the IT Act, 2000. “We have launched a search to arrest the suspects,” he said.

Last week, Sector Beta 2 police arrested two persons for fraudulently withdrawing money using other people’s cards at different ATM kiosks. The modus operandi was the same in all cases. The suspects would already be inside the ATM booth. Once the victim swiped his card, the suspects would tell him that the machine was not working and he should try the next machine. The suspects would swiftly take over the first machine where the transaction would still be active, and withdraw money using the customer’s PIN.

The police said it appeared this gang has a similar modus operandi. “We have launched manual and electronic surveillance to arrest the suspects,” Upadhyaya said.