ATM Thefts

It's any time money not just for depositors but also for thieves.

If India puts not just a man on the moon but also the first ATM, the next day's headlines could announce that the money withdrawn by the country's first lunar bank customer was swiped seconds later by an anonymous compatriot who had managed to get there on his own steam.

ATM thefts are one area where India is not lagging behind the developed world. It's not just in Japan that there are reports of the yakuza (gangsters) using trucks with sophisticated construction equipment to uproot ATMs. India's Silicon Valley of Bangalore has also witnessed amateurish attempts to carry away ATMs, lock, stock and barrel.

And so what if, according to some media reports, India holds the record for the world's highest installed ATM some 4,000 metres above sea level and around the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim. There are also reports that the Agricultural Bank of China has installed the world's highest ATM at around 4,500 m in Tibet. There are no reports however of the highest ATM theft. Whether the record is jointly held by Chindia is not known.

ATMs are hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. It is not just the customer who no longer has to go to the bank to withdraw money but can swipe a smart card (with an embedded chip containing a unique number) at an ATM. Likewise, instead of holding up a bank like the gangster John Dillinger used to do in the days of the Great Depression in America, the 21st-century thief can source his daily requirements by swiping someone else's money at the nearest friendly neighborhood ATM which is open 24x7.

The ATM has not just enabled the individual customer to have transactions with his own account without accessing the bank's entire database. It has also decentralized bank thefts since the individual thief can operate at a micro level and swipe someone else's hard-earned money by circumventing the customer-identity integrity systems by attaching fake keypads or card-readers on ATMs, to record confidential data like the depositor's PIN. Technological devices have been developed to detect foreign objects on ATMs.

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Source: Secondary