Woman gives ATM card to fraudster, loses Rs 40,000

The incident took place on June 3 when the victim, Ramani (65) of Lake View Road in West Mambalam, was trying to withdraw money from an ATM kiosk on Arya Gowda Road in Ashok Nagar. As she kept trying without realising that the kiosk did not have cash, a man who was waiting outside the ATM offered to help Ramani.

Trusting him, she handed over the card to him and also revealed the PIN to him. After trying once, he told Ramani that the machine had run out of cash. However, instead of returning her ATM card, the man gave her a deactivated ATM card.

Ramani did not realise the fraud and returned home. Then, the man withdrew Rs 20,000 from her account the same day from another ATM kiosk, and withdrew another Rs 20,000 the next day as well. It is only after she noticed the SMS alerts from the bank informing her about the cash withdrawal that she saw on June 4 that Ramani realised something amiss and immediately informed the bank to block the card.

After reporting about the incident to the bank and collecting the withdrawal details, Ramani approached Ashok Nagar police station on Friday to lodge a complaint. A cheating case has been registered and police are trying to establish the identity of the fraudster with the help of CCTV footage retrieved from the kiosk and also from nearby localities. Police have also asked bank officials for details of where the cash has been withdrawn from.