Watch out for ATM fraud

It's disquieting to learn that a transnational syndicate is involved in stealing money from the ATMs of local banks. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit recently arrested some members of this syndicate, including its alleged mastermind Hakan Zanburkan, a Turkish citizen. Reportedly, he along with some Indian and Bangladeshi nationals have long been carrying out their fraudulent activities in the country. Hakan visited Bangladesh at least six times over the last five years. Last month, he went to several ATM booths of Eastern Bank Limited and tried to withdraw money about 84 times using cloned cards of at least 40 countries. However, his attempts were foiled by the anti-skimming technology installed by the bank.

In a confessional statement given by Hakan, the detailed procedure of how the gang operated was revealed. It was known that the gang had members in India, Pakistan, Mexico, Bulgaria, Bangladesh and Turkey. The CTTC investigation also found that Hakan, along with another Turkish national and two Bangladeshis, were arrested in India's Assam in 2019 for stealing around 10 lakh rupees through such fraudulence.

Since the first incident of ATM card fraud was reported in the country in 2016, several such incidents have come to light. In all the cases, the involvement of foreign nationals was found. They used not only cloned cards but also other advanced technologies to steal people's money without leaving any trace. Reportedly, some Bangladeshi nationals also took training on cloning credit cards in foreign countries such as Russia.

We appreciate the efforts of the CTTC unit so far and hope that all other members of the gang will soon be apprehended. Since Hakan is one of the masterminds of this international ATM card skimming gang, police should immediately request other countries as well as the Interpol to provide them necessary information on their operations, which will help prevent such incidents in the future.

Meanwhile, all our banks must have the modern technologies needed to foil any such attempts of ATM fraud. The latest attempt to steal money from the ATMs of Eastern Bank Limited failed only because it had a robust security system in place. All our banks should learn from this incident and protect themselves by installing anti-malware and anti-skimming systems and by addressing any existing system vulnerabilities.