Jamshedpur, April 13 : In order to curb spurt in bank crimes, city police have directed banks to put up posters on safety at all the nearly 500 ATMs for account holders.
SSP East Singhbhum Anoop Birtharay said that a meeting with bank officials was held a directive to paste posters on safe transactions outside ATMs to avoid fraudulent practices by miscreants by stealing PIN numbers was given. “We have also asked the banks to ensure through their private agency which loads cash in ATMs to monitor on a daily basis if any external device is installed at ATM to prevent cloning of ATM cards,” he noted.
District police has also invited a Delhi based cyber experts to sensitize district police officials on cyber crimes modus operandi and means to detect it using modern technology.
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in Hindi encourages users to use net banking, credit and ATM cards for financial transactions and ensure that amounts withdrawn from banks are kept in a safe place and maintain confidentiality about their visit to bank and transactions.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 Prabhat Kumar.
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.