THE safety of ATM banking appears to be at bigger stake than what was primarily presumed following the breaking of several cash windows of two banks in the city last month. Meanwhile several national dailies on Thursday reported yet another case of forgery involving six ATM booths of Premier Bank in which five customers lost Tk 35 lakh from their accounts. Another media reports in the same day unveiled seizure of over 1000 counterfeit ATM cards at Dhaka Airport to the utter disbelief of bankers and intelligence agencies as to how quickly the ATM swindling network is spreading in the country. The consignment invariably shows the crime gang is working on a larger project to widen their outreach to deceive banks and their clients. Fraudsters are not only targeting ATM booths in this case but also using international credit cards of overseas clients in any country using the money in payment of bills for hotels, restaurants, departmental stores and travel agents. The latest disclosure that the Premier Bank reported to Bangladesh Bank recently showed swindlers used duplicate credit cards of five clients originally issued by Al Rajhi Bank of Saudi Arabia and made payment for services in Bangladesh.The German national arrested in charge of recent breaking of several ATM booths in the city said members of his network, that include Bangladeshi nationals and foreigners, move from country to country under various business cover. They hack credit card identity of clients having deposits in different banks and then create their duplicates and use those cards in making business payments. In fact, as we see it is a huge business to deceive clients holding them unaware of the theft from their accounts. The counterfeit ATM cards seized at Dhaka Airport were shipped by a courier firm from Hong Kong to an address at Mohakhali in Dhaka. The consignments were cleared without the Bill of Entry. It invariably suggests that agents of the fraudsters are at work globally and locally at every important business place. It further shows unless the network can be destroyed, safety of the banking system now going more and more electronic at home and abroad can’t be made foolproof. The very presence of global fraudsters in local ATM booths gives the ominous sign of bigger challenge to protect the banks. Banking system in the country made significant stride in recent time with a fast growing ATM network and global transactions using credit cards. So it needs comprehensive safety measures with strong anti-money laundering vigilance. In our view bank management and the government must do more to eliminate the risk.
