ATM incidents take a toll on electronic transactions

Banking transactions using the automated teller machines (ATMs) have taken a tumble as the cardholders are shying away from the smart payment system following last week's card forgery, sources said.
An analysis of very recent data of such transactions showed the current rate of currency withdrawals on a significant downturn. The withdrawal of funds from the ATM booths through the installation of skimming devices has shaken the cardholders' confidence in using electronic transaction system.
According to Bangladesh Bank (BB) statistics, inter-bank transactions worth over Tk 2.53 billion were recorded in the first 15 days of this month (February) through the ATM booths with the daily average coming to more than Tk 181.0 million.
The data showed the recorded transactions worth around Tk 2.38 billion in the first 13 days until the card-skimming scandal came to light through both print and electronic media.
On February 14, when the country's most national dailies and private television channels covered the acts of financial fraud, the withdrawal rate drastically came down to around Tk 46.0 million.
Inter-bank daily average transactions through shared ATM booths are worth Tk 150 million- Tk 200 million under the NPSB. But it reaches an average amount of Tk 2.40 billion per day if both inter-bank and own transaction of all banks are included.
"Although transaction trend increased slightly on February 15 (Tk 110 million), the number was far below the average as the recent skimming attacks are still haunting many minds," a senior BB official said.
Expressing his optimism about a possible increase in the electronic transactions in the coming days, he said the anti-skimming measure taken by the central bank would help restore confidence of the clients holding debit and credit cards.
The cardholders, however, expressed their serious concern over the less-secure features in a good number of ATM booths to combat skimmers.
"I really feel panicky to cash out money through the electronic payment system because of the recent skimming scam. I think that's the reason behind the poor transaction scenario," said Sajedul Karim, who works at a state-owned financial institution.
He said people normally keep money with the banks for reasons of security. "If the banking institutions fail to provide such security, then where people like us would go."   
Kamrul Ahsan, a businessman, said he had almost stopped drawing bank money using ATM booths for the last several days following media report that information of over 200 debit/credit cards of 26 banks had been initially found stolen from ATM booths during February 6-12 period.   
"It's horrible….and nobody was arrested until now…it showed how weak the security system is," he said.
Skimming is a technique used by cyber-criminals to copy personal data from the magnetic strip on an ATM card. The criminal fits a skimming device in the card slot of the ATM. Once a card is swiped through a skimmer, personal information contained on the magnetic strip is read and stored on the device or transmitted wirelessly to the racketeers.
With the card data, they can conduct transactional fraud, create new credit cards with the stolen identity and personal information, or sell the cardholder data on the black market.
In the face of skimming attacks in six ATM booths of three commercial banks, the central bank has called an emergency meeting for today (Wednesday) with the 49 NPSB (National Payment Switch Bangladesh) member banks to discuss their existing security features in their booths.
Currently, 23 switches are operating under the NPSB, 22 of which are being used by the banks concerned while the remaining one by the Information Technology Consultants Limited (ITCL).
The NPSB was introduced on December 27, 2012, aiming to facilitate efficient, safe and secure payment system.
Meanwhile, members of the security forces like NSI (National Security Intelligence) and SB (Special Branch) took the video footages of the skimming scandals from the central bank for launching investigation by the respective agencies to break the hi-tech heist.
"We've provided all video footages of the skimmer frauds along with relevant rules and regulations to the law enforcers for taking legal action against the cyber frauds," another BB senior official told the FE.
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