Despite reports of growing incidents of card forgery, the central bank and commercial banks are yet to come up with concrete measures that would assure the clients of the safety of their money.
Measures taken so far by the banks are scanty and wrapped in confusion, with some banks still in a state of denial about high-tech forgeries taking place in ATM booths.
“The central bank has nothing to do about it if bank officials are themselves involved with card forgery and illegal transaction. Banks employing those officials should take stern measures against them,” said M Mahfuzur Rahman, executive director of Bangladesh Bank (BB).
However, wishing anonymity, a high official of the BB said the central bank has no specific guidelines on the credit card and debit card services – which could be useful in protecting the clients’ interests.
Commercial banks usually follow their own sets of rules in this regard.
Sources said, the first major incident of credit card fraud was discovered in June last year, at the United Commercial Bank Limited (UCBL) – with over Tk100m withdrawn from it illegally.
The money was withdrawn over a period of 5-6 years – between sometime in 2007 and May 2012 – by a gang of high-tech swindlers, using 21 credit cards.
UCBL authorities found involvement of four of its officials in the incident and handed them over to the police.
On July 24, the detective branch of police arrested four credit card fraud suspects for stealing around Tk20m from different banks in the last two years.
Of them, two were IT officials at the Mutual Trust Bank, one employed with Advanced Data Network, an institution providing ATM networking services, and the other, a former employee of Aamra Technologies.
During police investigation, the disgraced bank officials confessed to having stolen information of clients and passed it on to others for forgery.
Mahbubur Rahman, a client of Brac Bank (A/C: 1525201986238001), told the Dhaka Tribune that he had lodged a complaint with the BB after fraudsters took away Tk63,000 from his account using fake debit cards.
Though BB directed Brac Bank to pay him the full amount in compensation, Mahbubur said, the latter paid only Tk35,000.
Rakibul Hasan, another victim of fraud, said he had lost Tk43,000 from his account (A/C: 13710174370) in Dutch Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL).
“Tk43,000 was swindled from my account using fake debit cards, although I am pretty sure I had never disclosed my PIN code or any other information to anyone else,” he said.
Based on his complaint, the central bank asked DBBL authorities to file a report on the alleged forgery, Rakibul said, adding the bank did not do that yet.
A DBBL official, wishing to remain anonymous, said, “We have a very secure networking system. No one can steal money even if they can fake our cards, as these cards are built with processor chips used in computer.”
According to sources, the central bank had identified several ways that may lead to a client getting cheated of his or her money.
These include withdrawal of money from ATM booths without the clients’ knowledge, account statements not showing up money debited in this way, and unauthorised purchase and transaction through internet banking.
Another problem that a client has to suffer sometimes is unsuccessful transactions at the ATM booths – in which case the asked amount is deducted from his or her account but the cash machine fails to produce that.
Often clients have to face difficulties in having the money reimbursed by the bank concerned, sources said.
On February 4, the BB directed eight banks to submit reports on the problems identified above, but except for a few, most banks did not reply yet.
The banks are Brac Bank, DBBL, Prime Bank, Eastern Bank, Standard Chartered, Bank Asia, City Bank and Mutual Trust Bank.
Generally, commercial banks claim that the problem with cash machine, not producing the money asked of it, may occur due to network fluctuation or a technical glitch with the ATM booth.
However, the central bank is yet to come up with concrete measures to curb the growing incidents of illegal and ineffective financial transaction that occur inside ATM booths.
IT professionals at banks also do not shoulder the responsibility, saying ensuring security of ATM cards and booths is not their job.
`Recent forgeries were held by using fake card which is not related with IT department of the banks as card and IT departments are fully different. Some global frauds were involved with such forgery and usually they enter the ATM booth as maintenance engineer. So banks should ensure ID card for the maintenance engineer and also become careful about ATM booth security to prevent such forgery’, said Tapon Kanti Sarkar, President of Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Forum.
In this regard, Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB) President Nurul Amin said the incidents of card forgery would cast a negative impact on the banking sector.
“The banks should be more careful with their transaction system and take stern measures against officials who have become involved with forgery,” he said.