Jamshedpur: City police on Monday launched a massive drive to curb bank crime in the city. In a first-of-its-kind step, posters informing customers on safe procedures while withdrawing huge amounts from banks were pasted at all the 300 bank�s existing in city and outskirts today.
Jamshedpur city SP, Prabhat Kumar who inaugurated the drive at SBI Main Branch in Bistupur said, �It is an effort to curb incidents of crimes like loot and snatching, especially on those who withdraw huge amount of money from bank and facilitate easy identification of those involved by creating awareness amongst the general public visiting banks.
Importantly, incidents of fraudulent withdrawal of money from bank accounts are on the rise in the steel city. Unidentified gang of criminals is active in the racket by following different modus operandi, including by changing the ATM card and also by knowing the victim’s ATM PIN number.
Instructions have been issued to all the 18 urban police station officials to meet individually the bank�s officials in their area and ensure pasting of the posters.
The posters written in Hindi encourages users to use net banking, credit and ATM cards for financial transactions and ensure that amounts withdrawn from banks are kept in a safe place and maintain confidentiality about their visit to bank and transactions.
The posters strictly warn users against putting cash in banks, sacks and placing it in two-wheelers and four-wheelers dickey.
�We are confident that the initiative will help spread awareness in the city. We have issued written directive through all our police station officer-in-charge to all the 300 bank�s officials to start from today registers to be placed near the main entrance of the banks and mandatorily enter names of customers, mobile numbers and purpose of their visit to banks by the security staff,� added the SP.
Every alternate day at least one case of fraudulent withdrawl case is reported to any of the 17 police stations in the city.
The gangs especially target women and people from rural areas who are first time users of the ATM and online banking. While police are talking to several banks and cellular companies about the issue, the officials said that these fraud calls are very convincing and even a well-educated person can fall into the trap.
�The recent cases of thefts at ATMs of public and private banks recently have highlighted how poorly the banks were investing in their security systems despite clear instructions given by the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI had stipulated that all banks in the district should install CCTV and other security gadgets in the banking hall as well as in peripheral areas of the branch for the safety of branches/customers by detecting the movement of suspicious people. Another area that needed immediate attention was the lack of security personnel at ATMs situated in remote and secluded areas,� said a college student.
