Mira Bhayander: Gone to generate PIN, auto-rickshaw driver duped by ATM crook

When 47-year-old Sushil Sharma got his first Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card linked with the savings account from his bank, he was very excited and eager to learn and conduct transactions via digital methods. However, his first experience came as a rude shock as he became the latest target of cyber crooks, after he was duped of Rs. 34,000 at an ATM kiosk of reputed Nationalised bank near Shivar Municipal Garden in Mira Road where he had gone to generate the Personal Identification Number (PIN) on Tuesday. Sharma is an auto-rickshaw driver who lives with his family near Naya Nagar in Mira Road.

In his complaint to the police, Sharma stated that he had recently received the ATM via courier. To generate a new PIN for the card, he went to the ATM kiosk with his daughter. After encountering a glitch in the process, the cheat aged around 30 years posing as a customer-in queue, stepped in the booth and helped them change the PIN. He hurriedly left the booth, but not before replacing the auto-drivers with a swift sleight of hand.

The card and its memorized PIN were later used to siphon-off Rs. 34,000 from Sharma’s bank account the following day. Sharma came to know about the fraud when he received a message from the bank. He immediately registered a complaint at the Naya Nagar police station in Mira Road. An offence under section 420 of the IPC has been registered against the unidentified ATM crook. Efforts were on to procure the footage captured by the CCTV cameras installed in the ATM booth and possible getaway routes, said an official who has appealed people not to entertain strangers while carrying out transactions at ATM booths.