Sambalpur: Miscreants have allegedly duped the State Bank of India (SBI) in Sambalpur town and Rengali areas of around Rs 4.5 crore over seven months apparently by tampering with as many as 11 Automated Teller Machines ( ATMs) in this district, a police official said.
The fraudulent transactions came to the fore after Santosh Rout, chief branch manager of SBI Sambalpur main branch, lodged a complaint at the Cyber police station. Police registered a case and started an investigation.
Twenty-five cards of different banks were used 4,369 times at 11 SBI ATMs in Sambalpur and Rengali town between September 2020 and March 2021.
The unidentified miscreants used ‘exit shutter manipulation fraud’ to siphon off the money after manually tampering with the cash dispensing shutters of the ATMs.
The miscreants would insert their cards and once the PIN and the requested amount is keyed in, the machine would authenticate the card and the process of cash dispensation would begin. The robbers would then jam the SBI ATM’s cash shutter while it was dispensing money, prompting it to generate an error message.
After collecting money from the ATMs, they would claim the same amount from the bank alleging non-receipt of cash. The money would then be refunded by the SBI, the police officer said.
“A case has been registered and an investigation is underway,” Cyber police station inspector Padmasini Meher said. “We are examining the CCTV footage of the SBI ATM kiosks to identify the people with the fraud,” the police official added.