Over the last few days, a video showing a skimmer attached to a bank’s ATM is doing the rounds in social media. This has created panic among a majority of ATM users across banks and many are even wondering whether the use of ATMs for any transaction is safe at all.
In this case, the ATM belongs to Canara Bank and the bank in a twitter reply to one of its follower has stated, “We, at Canara Bank take strict measures to safeguard our customers. We immediately located and removed the skimmer from Gowtami Nagar, Delhi ATM.” The bank has further informed through the same tweet that no data has been compromised.
It said that for safe use of ATMs and in order to prevent any misuse or fraudulent transactions on one’s account, the Canara Bank has two important features for the benefit of account holders – Firstly, one may use the Canara MServe app to switch off their Debit or Credit card when not in use. Secondly, the bank has initiated OTP authentication for withdrawals above Rs 10,000 per day.
It may be noted that a skimmer is a device that can be attached to any part of the ATM to capture the data from the debit or credit card of the user while using those cards in the machine. The data in the skimmer is stored in a memory card which is later on used to make a clone of the original card. Such cloned cards are then used to withdraw cash from ATMs through fraudulent means without the knowledge of the account holder. Along with this, there is also a camera attached somewhere near the numerical pad to record the ATM PIN when any user punches it in the machine.
Must Watch: ITR: How to claim exemptions in ITR from FD, PPF
The video is also an eye-opener for several account holders of various banks. Even while showing the fraudulent act, the makers constantly tell the users to look out for any such device before entering PIN for their own safety.