Dhanbad, Dec 15 (IANS): Cyber criminals allegedly withdrew cash ranging from Rs 7,000 to Rs 24,000 from as many as 147 accounts in different banks in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand by using the fingerprints of account holders after cloning them. Complaints regarding the matter have been made to the cyber police as well as the banks.

Most of the people from whose accounts money has been withdrawn are those who had availed the banking services at customer care centres or franchise centres instead of the branches, and had given their fingerprints on the machines there. It is suspected that there may be collusion of customer service centres employees with cyber criminals in these cases.

People complaining to the cyber police and banks say that they neither received a call from anyone, nor did they share ATM PIN and OTP with anyone, nor did they ever click on any link, but thousands of rupees were withdrawn from their account.

It is being said that illegal withdrawals ranging from Rs 7,000 to Rs 24,000 have been made from the accounts of most of the people two-three times. Businessmen, doctors, women were among those whose accounts were targeted.

According to Sumit Saurabh Lakda, DSP of Cyber Cell, it is a case of identity theft rather than cybercrime. Fingerprints are commonly used by people to get a new SIM, update Aadhaar, biometric attendance and withdraw money through customer care centres. Criminals apply a special type of chemical to the machine in which people give their fingerprints. After the people leave, they clone the fingerprints from the chemical.

Hundreds of cases of ATM cloning have been reported before in Jharkhand. Cyber criminals fix the camera in the ATM machine and through this they obtain the card number and password. After swiping the card in the machine, they clone the card with the help of a special type of device and then illegally withdraw cash from the accounts.