A 64-year-old retired government employee became the latest target of ATM crooks, after he lost more than Rs. 2 lakh. An unidentified man fled with his debit card and the knowledge of its PIN number under the pretext of helping him withdraw money. The incident took place at the ATM booth of a reputed multinational bank near the railway station in Bhayandar (east) when the senior citizen went there to withdraw money using his debit card.
The cheat aged around 25 years posed as a customer-in queue and stepped in the booth and under the pretext of offering help kept observing the PIN that the victim was entering in the system after punching the card. The crook hurriedly left the booth, but not before replacing the senior citizen’s card with a swift sleight of hand.
The card and its memorized PIN was later used to siphon-off Rs.2,06,187 cash from his account via multiple withdrawals between 7 to 9th June. The victim learnt about the withdrawals only after he got his passbook updated and registered a complaint at the Navghar police station on Friday.
A FIR has been registered and efforts were on to procure the footage captured by the CCTV cameras installed in and around the ATM booth, police said while appealing people not to entertain strangers while carrying out transactions at ATM booths.
