Con man steals Tk 4.6 lakh from ATM booths

Sometimes he would stand outside and sometimes inside ATM booths as if he was there to help those in need of support during transactions.

The fact is he is a fraudster waiting to seal their debit or credit cards.

And stealing was easy. When someone shared their PIN numbers with him in good faith, he would hand them over a fake card of the same bank after the transaction and keep the real one to withdraw the rest of the amount later.   

Using this method, Shahidul Islam, 35, swindled Tk 4.66 lakh from 12 accounts in Dhaka and Faridpur in the last one year before the detective branch (DB) of police arrested him from Mirpur on Thursday night, said Shahidur Rahman Ripon, additional deputy commissioner of DB (East), told The Daily Star.

All of his scams were caught on CCTV, the police official said.

Shahidul was arrested in a case filed by Mashiur Rahman, head of alternate delivery channel of Dutch Bangla Bank Limited, with Khilgaon Police Station on Thursday.

According to the case statement, the bank authorities came to know about the matter after a number of security guards at their ATM booths complained that members of an organised gang were withdrawing money by scamming their clients.

Earlier in late May and early June, nine DBBL ATMs fell victim to an international gang who stole around Tk 16 lakh during a series of thefts from different areas in the capital.

Police arrested six Ukrainians and a Russian from Dhaka in a case filed by DBBL authorities with Khilgaon Police Station under the digital security act on June 2. 

The Criminal Investigation Department of police also filed a money laundering case with Badda Police Station on June 10.