Four ATM booths of Premier Bank were targeted by scammers – who used what bankers believe to be cloned international credit cards – for withdrawing around Tk34 lakh during the second half of February.
Bangladesh Bank sent a team to Premier Bank yesterday to investigate the incident after the private bank lodged a complaint in this regard on Monday.
According to the complaint, between February 14 and 28, at least 150 international cards were used to withdraw money from four of their ATM booths in Banani, Bashundhara, Kakrail and Uttara.
All these cards belong to foreign nationals, while the non-branded ATM cards were owned by Malaysia’s Al Rajhi Banking and Investment Corporation.
Bangladesh Bank officials believe that the cards might have been cloned in Bangladesh.
This was the first ATM fraud complaint received by the central bank since news first broke on February 12 about Tk20 lakh being skimmed from ATM booths of three local banks – United Commercial Bank Limited, Eastern Bank Limited and City Bank.
The latest incident was the first ever allegation of international card forgery received by Bangladesh Bank, said a senior executive of the central bank.
He said the latest case was different from the others as international cards were used. “We suspected that there are many cases of international card cloning, but no bank wants to disclose it in fear of hurting their own image,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank has prepared a comprehensive report on the recent ATM card scam in three banks.
The report, which will be presented to central bank top officials, has identified private banks’ lax monitoring of ATM booth video footage and recommended more caution in surveillance of the booths.