KOLKATA: More than 600 customers who tried to withdraw money any time between April and July at any of the three affected ATMs — Canara Bank’s at Golpark, Bank’s on Park Street and Kotak Mahindra Bank’s on Elgin Road — still run the risk of being conned.
Kolkata Police has sought information from the National Payments Corporation of India, an agency tasked with maintaining data on such transactions, to try and ascertain the number of those affected. The cops fear the figure might be much higher than reported.
The officer said they suspected the number of duped people could go up for the other two compromised ATMs.
Canara Bank has advised several customers to hotlist their debit cards. “While blocking might not always be necessary, a PIN change is advisable for all such customers,” said a bank security expert.
two hotels at Kasba where the two accused put up has told us that around 10-12 Romanians had camped with them in these four months. This only increases the probability of the gang operating on a much wider scale,” said police.
It is also likely that the data was processed by their gang leaders themselves, the foot soldiers merely carrying out groundwork. It’s clear that with these arrests, the gang may be lying low for the moment but can attempt to operate from another city, as was noticed by Jaipur police, who had to make multiple trips to Goa and Mumbai before pinning down the accused to Delhi. The fact that the last time in Delhi they even tried to auction this data to an Indian gang has also got to be factored. “As such, it is important that we adopt all measures to ensure no further loss to Kolkatans,” said an officer.
Cops said they have conducted several rounds of meetings with banks trying to figure out safety-enhancing measures.