Mumbai:
Police investigating the hacking of Axis Bank accounts today claimed to have found that a "skimming" device was attached to an ATM in Mumbai, which was allegedly used by scamsters to clone debit cards of police personnel to defraud them.
"It seems that the skimming device was attached to the ATM between May 7 and May 29 and we are searching the footage accordingly," a police official said.
Sources said since police knew when the ATM was bugged, they could now fast track investigations in the case in which a total of 37 Axis Bank accounts, including 13 operated by Mumbai policemen, have been hacked in the last two months. A little over Rs 15 lakh was withdrawn through ATMs in Greece.
The ATM, where the skimming device was attached, is located near the office of the Director General of Maharashtra Police in south Mumbai.
Some of the policemen in the city had received SMSes that cash, in the form of euros, had been withdrawn from their Axis bank accounts.
In order to cross-check the fraud perpetrated on them, the policemen immediately visited the nearest ATM centres and were shocked to find that cash had indeed been withdrawn from their accounts.
The accounts were hacked between June 10 and June 14, police said, adding that Axis Bank had contacted Mumbai Police and informed them that they had set up a committee to probe the matter.
The amount withdrawn from the bank accounts of policemen reportedly stands at Rs 2.5 lakh.
Police claim that the debit cards had been cloned and the withdrawal was done in Greece. A case of cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy has been registered by the Mumbai Police.
Axis Bank had said it had compensated all the affected customers and had launched a full-scale investigation.