Magazine : 
Is it time to go back to CASH? Bangalore ATM Fraud says so!
Four employees from a reputed company lose a sum of over 
40, 000 in an ATM fraud that happened on Tuesday in Murugeshpalya, Bangalore. The case highlights on the growing digital hacking ecosystem, where in despite of card holder being in one place and the hacker at the other part of the country shows how advanced hackers are at this. Moreover, it shows the vulnerable side of the digital transactions, which in fact requires a whole new level of security systems for the safer world.
Apoorva, one of the victims says, “Tuesday evening returning from work, I entered into a nearby ATM to change my pin just because of a fraud rumour in my company. After changing the pin, I checked my balance and I was shocked to see that 30,000 was gone from my account in three different transactions. I right away contacted the Customer Care and explained them. In the next morning, I filed a complaint submitting the documents at the Axis Bank and since it was over 25,000, I had to complain at the Cybercrime cell as well. Hearing me out, bank told me that I’ll be reimbursed the amount within 2-3 months, depending on the case genuinity.”
With more people transacting online and technology becoming increasingly sophisticated, ATM hacking and fraud business has become an organized crime that can be unleashed upon you from across the world. A recent report shows that a total of 1,785 cases, each amounting to 1 lakh or more related to credit/debit cards and net banking frauds in India were reported last year. The number of transactions that took place at ATM and POS terminal amounted to approx. 3469.97 billion (Rs 3,46,997 crore). While people are moving towards digital payment methods, such instances are a blow to the government’s digital initiative dream.
Monisha, who works in the same company, had a similar experience. She says, “Tuesday morning while working in my office, I received two notifications within a span of 30 seconds that 3,000 and 2,500 has been debited from my account. I checked my purse and was relieved to see that card is with me. But in no time, I received the third notification saying ‘insufficient funds’. I headed to the Axis Bank and lodged a complaint submitting the documents, and they promised that amount will be reimbursed within 2-3 months if it’s a genuine case.”
Digital payment systems are pivotal in any economy and payments are a daily activity carried out by people. Some people transact 2-5 times a day while some other more than 20 times making them heavy users of this system. PM Ramdas, VP & Head Security at Reliance Group, says, “With millions of identity fraud victims in India, anyone with a bank account must take the proper precautions. Fortunately, guarding yourself from fraudsters requires a minimal time investment and a little common sense. Some easy ways to secure your bank accounts and avoid identity theft is to make sure your passwords contain both small letters and capital letters, never give your usernames, passwords or PIN to anyone, never give username or password on any link you receive via email, don’t use public computers for banking.”
Incidents like these have put a dark spot on the Indian Banking organizations as common man’s financial freedom is being compromised. Reports from a study by IIM-B suggest that banks should establish a special fraud monitoring department with experts trained in fraud detection. Hence, the government and RBI should improvise and strengthen the current banking system to make sure that digital transactions are safer than before. Or else a reverse trend is not so far!!
Given below are the transaction details of the victims and the highlighted portion shows the hacked part:
a) transaction details of Apoorva
b) transaction details of Monisha
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