On February 6, Venkataraman received an SMS on his phone stating that his card was used to withdraw money from an ATM.
Mohamed Thaver
A 32-YEAR-OLD from Dombivli, who lost Rs 40,000 in a series of illegal transactions, turned sleuth after the local Thane police and the Cyber Cell were not of much help. And though Gurunathan Venkataraman has had the money refunded by his bank, he vows to carry on with the investigation after he realised that several people like him had been conned in a similar manner over the last few weeks.
On February 6, Venkataraman received an SMS on his phone stating that his card was used to withdraw money from an ATM. He checked his wallet and his debit card was still with him. By then he received three more messages and in all Rs 40,000 had been debited from his account. “It was a Saturday and the banks were closed, so I used the bank app on my phone to block my card,” said Venkataraman, who works with a major mobile service provider.
Two days later, when he approached the bank branch at Dombivli, he was told that it was a case of fraud and he should approach Vishnu Nagar police station. “When I went there, they said I should approach the Thane Cyber Cell. The Cyber Cell took down my details but did not register any FIR,” Venkataraman told The Indian Express.
At this point, Venkataraman decided to take matters in his own hand. “In the text messages I had received about the withdrawals, there was something that appeared like the ATM code number. After researching online and with some help from my friends, I found that the code stood for Cosmos Bank.” Venkataraman then went to the Cosmos Bank office at Dadar. After some effort, they told him the withdrawals as per the code were from their Goregaon West ATM.
“I went to the Goregaon West ATM where the transactions had allegedly taken place and convinced them to check their CCTV footage. And there, I could see a 6-foot foreign national, carrying nearly 7-8 debit cards, withdrawing money. He had kept a bag near the cash dispensing slot where all the withdrawn money kept falling,” said the 32-year-old. “I then called up the Thane Cyber Cell. They asked me if I could get the footage along but I was not allowed to,” he said.
The Thane Police Cyber Cell said they had received the footage and were probing the matter, but no FIR was registered.
Venkataraman has since downloaded international studies on cyber crime trying to understand how, in spite of having a chip-and-pin debit card that supposed to be more secure than ones with magnetic strip, his card was cloned. He said he suspected the ATM in Malad from where he last withdrew money was compromised and his details were leaked from there.
Meanwhile, the bank contacted him Friday and told him that the Rs 40,000 would be deposited back to his account, which was done on Saturday.
