Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Investigators of Bangladesh Bank (BB) have identified four suspects of the second case of ATM fraud at the Premier Bank.
They have snub-nose and their physical structure and complexion are not like that of Bangalis. Subhankar Shaha, an Executive Director of BB, told it to The New Nation on Wednesday night over cell phone.
“They resemble the Rohingas to some extent and not like the tribal people,” he added.
Suvankar Shaha said that the suspected persons have been identified after examining the CCTV footage obtained from various ATM centres of the bank.
“We got a clear picture of fraudulent transactions at six ATM booths of the Premier Bank mostly in the city,” he added.
According to him, about 150 credit and debit cards were used in these ATM booths on that day when the fraudsters looted the money of the bank customers. “These are the primary findings detected by the BB investigators who launched the probe the same day the bank lodged complaint of fraudulent transactions,” said Subhankar Shaha.
“We also warned all the commercial banks about the latest incident. Besides, they have been asked to strengthen security at their ATM booths to prevent similar occurrences in future,” he said.
Premier Bank, a private commercial bank of the country, on Monday reported the second case of ATM forgery with the central bank in which five customers of a foreign bank have lost over Tk 35 lakh from their accounts.
Fraudsters have stolen the money from the city’s six ATM booths of Premier Bank after cloning their international credit cards (VISA Cards) issued by the Al Rajhi Bank of Saudi Arabia.
The incident took place in between February 14 and 28.
After the incident, Premier Bank lodged a complaint with BB. A case has also been filed with Banani Police Station in this connection.
This was the second reported case of ATM forgery in Bangladesh. The first incident was reported on February 12 in which the private Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) detected 21 fraudulent transactions at the ATM booths of two other private banks, United Commercial Bank Ltd and The City Bank.
The skimming card gang has stolen Tk 25 lakh from the accounts of some 40 bank customers through making fake transactions.
Police later arrested a gang of four men including a foreigner in connection with the ATM scam.
The kingpin of the gang has been identified as Piotr Szcdepan Mazurek, who was born in Ukraine, claimed to be a German and carries a Polish passport.
He admitted his involvement in the ATM booth frauds along with the detained three bank employees during interrogation.
“We suspect that the same gang might be involved in the ATM card skimming fraud happened in Premier Bank,” Khondker Fazle Rashid, Managing Director (MD) of the Bank, told The New Nation on Wednesday, admitting the incident.
He said the gang withdrawn Tk 35 lakh after duplicating credit cards of five foreigners from four ATM booths of the bank in the capital.
The foreigners were holding international credit cards of Saudi-based bank Al Rajhi, said Fazle Rashid, but he declined to disclose details of the account holders.
When asked, he said, his bank stopped the online transaction temporarily with the Saudi Bank soon after the incident came to the light.
The Premier Bank MD also said that the bank had informed the matter to the central bank and lodged a case with Banani police station in this connection.
