Maha: Four Held For A Cheating Bank Using Failed ATM Transactions

The police in Maharashtra's Washim on Saturday arrested four persons of a gang that allegedly cheated a bank by citing failed ATM transactions to claim a refund, an official said.  
        
The Washim Urban Cooperative Bank had complained that some persons fiddled with the cash dispenser of the ATM, collected money, and later claimed that the transaction had failed, Washim superintendent of police Bachchan Singh said.
        
The bank authorities had observed a pattern with the same persons carrying out the fraud frequently and they approached the police, he said. 
        
An offence under section 420 (cheating) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act was registered and the probe was undertaken by the local crime branch, he said. 
        
Investigations revealed that 19 cards belonging to 10 different banks were being used for the fraud amounting to Rs 7.55 lakh. The cards were in the name of a resident of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, the official said.  
        
A team of the LCB went to different places in Uttar Pradesh and apprehended the accused, he said, adding that the accused whose name was on the cards is currently lodged in Kanpur jail for a different offence. 
        
“The gang targeted banks that had procedural loopholes, which aided the refund citing failed transactions. The police are investigating further into more such instances of cheating. The involvement of more accused in the crime is not ruled out, and the amount of fraud is expected to increase,” Singh said.