Fraudsters might actually have stolen over Tk 1 crore -- four times the amount initially thought -- from ATM booths of several banks using cloned cards last month, the central bank and investigators say.

It seems these days in Bangladesh we are either forced or almost obliged to give personal, sometimes very private, information to some national bodies

Foreign fraudsters in collaboration with local bankers and merchants are believed to have committed more card frauds on point-of-sale (POS) terminals than what they had done with ATMs, experts and investigators said.

A German national and three officials of the card division of City Bank have been arrested in connection with stealing money from card holders by copying card data from ATM booths.

While the law enforcers are busy identifying the culprits involved in the recent ATM frauds, the central bank is doing everything possible to protect customers and bring back confidence in the automated transactions.