BENGALURU: A-52-year-old woman got the shock of her life when she learned that someone had withdrawn Rs 1.4 lakh from her bank account. The victim, E C Lakkamma, withdrew money from an ATM kiosk in Banashankari 3rd Stage before starting her pilgrimage to temples across the country. But after four days, when she was travelling, she got multiple messages on her phone regarding cash withdrawals from her account. The victim, however, had her debit card when the withdrawals occurred. Police suspect that miscreants had skimmed her debit card details.
Lakkamma’s son Arun Kumar K H, a resident of Bhuvaneshwari Nagar in Banashankari, filed a complaint with Channammanakere Acchukattu police on Monday. In his complaint he stated that Lakkamma, a homemaker, has an account with Canara Bank. She embarked on the trip along with her friends on May 15. Before starting, she withdrew Rs 23,500 using her debit card.
On May 20, Lakkamma told Kumar that she received multiple messages from the bank about cash withdrawals though she had not used her debit card after May 15. On reading the messages Kumar found that on May 17, Rs 20,000 has been withdrawn, and Rs 40,000 each was withdrawn on May 18, 19 and 20. Kumar immediately blocked her account. Kumar told The New Indian Express, “My mother is not tech savvy. She did not see the messages. It was only on Monday that she noticed the messages.”
Bank officials told Kumar that they would investigate the matter. “We are waiting for the officials to find out if the withdrawals were made from the same ATM kiosk or from different ones,” Kumar added.
An investigating officer said, “We have taken up the case under IT Act and IPC. We suspect the miscreants installed a skimming device in the ATM kiosk. We have asked the bank officials to give CCTV footages of ATM kiosks where the transactions took place.”