Kolkata, August 3: Even as two nationalised banks on Wednesday assured customers of refund of amount to those who have been cheated through ATM card cloning or skimming, there have been two more complaints of ATM card cloning in West Bengal on Thursday. In the latest cases reported, the police said that they received two new complaints. One of the bank customers cheated is a radio jockey. Both the new complaints are reported from South Kolkata.

According to the police, the radio jockey has claimed that Rs 50,000 was wrongly withdrawn from her account, a transaction that she did not undertake.

A report in The Indian Express, mentions that even some 15 to 20  bank employees have been a victim of the card cloning fraud, so far. The police said that skimming machines are available on certain websites, and that they are investigating if the skimming machines were sold or purchased illegally.

CCTV footage of ATMs where skimming machines were installed have also been gathered. And it has been found that a Canara Bank ATM, located in Gariahat, had a skimming machine installed at least four times in three months, from April to June.

The police on Wednesday had said that 76 complaints of people losing money due to ATM card skimming had been reported in the last eight days.

"So far around 76 customers of two nationalised banks and one private bank, mostly from the Golpark area in south Kolkata have complained that they were duped of huge amounts of money even when they were not using their debit cards at any ATM", Joint Commissioner of Police, crime, Praveen Tripathi, was quoted by news agency PTI.

He had added that a special investigating team has been formed to investigate the crime.

The Joint Commissioner of Police, crime, Praveen Tripathi, also said that Rs 18 to 30 lakhs have been siphoned off from the accounts of customers who have been cheated so far.

The fraudsters are reported to have been operating from the National Capital Region (NCR) in Delhi, as almost all the fraudulent withdrawals have been executed from this area, said the police.

The skimming method is a way through which a customer's ATM card details are copied using a device called "skimmer." Once the details are copied, a duplicate card is prepared which can then allow a miscreant to withdraw money from customer's account using the ATM card and password, as the details have been copied from the original card. The skimming device is made to look like part of an ATM machine, which does not even raise a suspicion in the mind of customers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 03, 2018 09:29 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).