Bharati Sahakari Bank duped of Rs1.08 crores in ATM clone fraud

According to the FIR registered by Bharati Sahakari Bank managing director (MD), Sarjerao Patil, unknown persons used 439 cloned ATM cards in 1,247 ATM transactions to withdraw Rs10,815,700 from Bharati Sahakari Bank during the Covid-19 pandemic between December 2020 and January 2021

PUNE: The Bharati Sahakari Bank Limited on July 27, 2023 registered an FIR against unknown persons for duping it of Rs1.08 crores by using cloned ATM cards of other banks’ account holders to withdraw cash from Bharati Sahakari Bank’s ATMs across the country.

The bank administration approached the Vishrambaug police station on June 24, 2022, after the fraud came to light, and a case was registered against unknown accused on July 27, 2023 after preliminary investigation. (REPRESENTATIVE PIC)

According to the FIR registered by Bharati Sahakari Bank managing director (MD), Sarjerao Patil, unknown persons used 439 cloned ATM cards in 1,247 ATM transactions to withdraw Rs10,815,700 from Bharati Sahakari Bank during the Covid-19 pandemic between December 2020 and January 2021. According to Patil, fraudsters cloned the ATM cards of account holders of other banks and withdrew from Bharati Sahakari Bank ATMs located in Kothrud, Waroli, Baner, Hadapsar, Kolhapur, Malkapur, Delhi, Navi Mumbai, Sangli, Dhankawadi and Akurdi.

The bank administration approached the Vishrambaug police station on June 24, 2022, after the fraud came to light, and a case was registered against unknown accused on July 27, 2023 after preliminary investigation. The police also said that the bank administration had informed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about the ATM clone fraud and that the police would take the RBI’s help in further investigation, if required.

Vitthal Dabade, senior police inspector at Vishram Baug Police station, said, “An unknown person cloned the ATM cards of account holders of other banks and used the cloned ATM cards to withdraw money from Bharati Sahakari Bank ATMs.”

Dabade said that when the respective person received a message stating that some amount had been debited from his/her account, he/she approached the respective bank and informed about the fraudulent transaction. While the said bank refunded the amount to the concerned person after necessary cross-checking, that bank did not return the money to Bharati Sahakari Bank at the time of settlement, resulting in the latter being duped of crores of rupees.

Patil said, “Let me first clarify that this is not a cyber fraud. The money of all of our depositors is safe and secure and there is no need to worry about it. In this fraud, cash was withdrawn from ATMs of our bank across the country using cloned ATM cards of account holders of other banks.”

Asked why the bank management woke up so late, Patil said, “We came to know this during calculation of the next financial year in June 2022. No sooner, we lodged an FIR at Vishrambaug police station. We have also taken action against two of our employees for negligence of duty.”

Patil said that in 2022-23, Bharati Sahakari Bank secured business worth Rs2278.30 crores with a total profit of Rs10.67 crores. The bank’s NPA percentage too is 1.76 so there is no need for its account holders to panic.