Axis Bank has refunded the amount that was fraudulently withdrawn from 37 accounts, including 12 being operated by Mumbai police, through multiple withdrawals at ATMs in Greece. Yesterday INN carried a story in these columns captioned 'Mumbai Police Salary Accounts Hacked, Withdrawn Abroad' and immediately police officials and Axis Bank initiated inquiry and taken the issue on priority to solve. As an impact today, Axis Bank announced to compensate the 'hacked' salaries to the concerns.
The money was withdrawn in Euros possibly through cloned debit cards. Total amount debited was Rs 15.47 lakh, of which Rs 2.50 lakh was withdrawn from the salary accounts of Mumbai policemen.
Axis Bank spokesperson told INN that, “A small number of our customers’ accounts (less than 50) have been impacted through transactions at compromised ATMs in Mumbai belonging to multiple banks. We have reversed the impact in all such customers’ accounts with immediate effect, to ensure they are not inconvenienced. We are undertaking a full investigation into the incident and are working closely with law enforcement officials in this regard. We wish to assure our customers that Axis Bank stands committed to protecting their interests and that we have the necessary systems to ensure the same.”
According to a reports, the international syndicate of criminals was accessing information about card holders at retail establishments. These were done mostly by cloning cards during international travel.
ATM Cloning usually involves thieves attaching devices on ATM machines to copy the number of a credit or debit card, and capture the information about a customer’s account that is embedded on the magnetic strip of the cards.
The con emerged after a few constables complained to their superiors after they received text messages from the bank regarding cash withdrawals, which they claim were never made by them. In order to cross-check the fraud, these policemen immediately visited nearest ATM centres and found that indeed cash had been withdrawn from their accounts.
The accounts were hacked during April and May, police said, adding that the Axis Bank had contacted Mumbai police and informed that they had set up a committee to probe the matter.
According to DCP Satyanarayan Choudhari, it was not immediately known as to how much amount had been withdrawn from the bank accounts of those policemen.
However, later, police got information that the cyber fraudsters had withdrawn Rs 13 lakh from these 29 bank accounts which had been hacked.
Police claimed that the debit cards have been cloned and the withdrawal done in Greece, adding that an FIR will be lodged soon in this connection.
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