City police are drawing up a plan to conduct security audits of all ATMs and point-of-sale (POS) machines at malls and shops to curb rising incidents of cyber fraud in the capital.

Policemen and bank officials will conduct manual inspection at ATMs to detect the presence of skimming devices using which electronic data can be stolen and cards cloned. Cops are also planning to train ATM guards to make them more aware about the new threats to security.

The recent victim of cyber con in the city is 66-year-old retired engineer of DVC from Calcutta, Subhas Chandra Goswami, who lost Rs 1.10 lakh from his SBI account after his ATM card was apparently cloned by fraudsters.

“This is a new kind of security threat in Ranchi. Regular security audits of ATMs and POS machines at business installations are required. After Chhath, we will hold a meeting with officials of banks and police stations for regular security checks,” Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta said on Monday.

There are over 400 ATMs in Ranchi.

The SSP said Ranchi police and the cyber crime department were planning to conduct regular awareness drives informing people about the modus operandi of cyber criminals. “Instructions on safe transactions are displayed inside ATM kiosks, but we need to create awareness about new methods and tools used in the crime,” the SSP added.

Goswami had come to celebrate Diwali with his daughter’s family at Sector 3 in Dhurwa. He had last swiped his ATM card on November 2 at the ATM of IDBI Bank at Hinoo to withdraw Rs 10,000.

Between 11.45pm on Saturday and 6am on Sunday, his account was cleaned out. Goswami lodged an FIR at Dhurwa police station on Sunday.

Before Goswami, three similar cases were reported in the city within a span of two months.

Minakshi Kumari Ravi, a PhD scholar at Ranchi University, lost Rs 80,000 while Kadru resident Khalid Jamil Akhtar lost Rs 5,000. Ranchi-based journalist T. Vijay Raghvan was swindled out of Rs 69,500.

Ranchi police could not make much headway in any of these cases except finding out that inter-state gangs were involved in the frauds.

Gang busted

Jamshedpur: Steel city police on Monday busted a gang of cyber criminals and arrested its two members for fraudulently withdrawing money from ATMs.

The arrested were identified as Mohammed Kasim (34) and Mohammed Salim Rajkadri (22), residents of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

City SP Prabhat Kumar said deputy manager of the SBI’s Bistupur branch Ranjan Gorai had on November 1 lodged an FIR stating that Rs 37,000 had been withdrawn from the bank’s Sonari Ram Mandir branch through fraudulent ATM transactions.

“Cyber cops swung into action and nabbed Kasim and Salim from Bistupur. During interrogation, the duo described how they pulled off the con,” Kumar told the media.

The city SP said the gang had conducted a recce of over 200 ATMs across the city and zeroed in on those lacking security guards and having power switch inside.

“The accused had opened multiple accounts in different banks and obtained ATM cards. They would enter an ATM of their choice and swipe a card. As soon as the cash came out, they would turn off the power switch and call up the customer care to inform about a failure in transaction. Within a week, the bank would deposit the money into the account concerned,” the city SP explained.

A dozen ATM cards of various banks, PAN and Aadhaar cards besides five cellphones were recovered from the duo.