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Police arrest 10, pursue three others in ATM scam
Police said Tuesday they are chasing three suspects linked to a crime syndicate believed to be responsible for the recent wave of ATM frauds across the country
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P
olice said Tuesday they are chasing three suspects linked to a crime syndicate believed to be responsible for the recent wave of ATM frauds across the country.
The three were identified only as Yudha, Yus and Pakter.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said that as of Tuesday the police had managed to arrest 10 people in various places and had confiscated several gadgets that were allegedly used in the scam.
As of Tuesday, the police announced there had been 14 reports of ATM scams in Jakarta, Kalimantan and Bali with total losses amounting to Rp 6 billion.
Seven people arrested in East Kalimantan were identified only as Syamsir Alamsyah, who owned a fake BNI debit card, M Syamsudin, M Ihsan, Riduan, Susanto, Ajeng, Irma. Apart from Syamsir, those arrested were former employees at Hotel Victoria.
One man identified as Supriyanto was arrested by the police in West Kalimantan, while the other two suspects, Fransiskus alias Frans and Joko Eko Budi Prasetyo, were arrested in Yogyakarta.
The police said they managed to confiscate a computer, a monitor, a printer, an Internet modem, dozens of ATM cards and details on personal saving accounts from various banks.
Edward said these people were now being detained at regional police office jails for further questioning. The ATM crime wave is believed to have started in Bali.
Chief detective Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said the police had now expanded their investigations to include Kalimantan and Sumatra and claimed that there were connections between the perpetrators behind the ATM scams in Bali and those operating in different places in the other two islands.
"Our cyber crime unit is still conducting its investigation into the case and for now, we are certain *that the perpetrators* have also expanded their crime spree to include Kalimantan, Sumatra and Java," Ito said.
When the first ATM cases surfaced in the media, a team consisting of officials and police officers from the IT-based crimes desk was deployed to assist local police in conducting their investigations.
However, the police now appear to be less open to giving information on the developments in the case to the media, sparking speculation they were advised not to give any statements to the press as bankers feared losing customers due to lack of confidence in bank security.
Edward gave assurances that no bank management had asked the police to cover up these cases for fear of negative public reactions.
"We often *simply* say no comment on this case because we don't want to disrupt the ongoing investigation," he said as quoted by detik.com.
Aritonang had said earlier that the perpetrators may have used several techniques in stealing money from the banks.
He said the techniques included attaching scanning devices to ATMs that were able to read personal data on ATM cards, setting up fake hotline numbers to gather customer data, including their personal identification number (PIN) and selling customer data to other criminals.
Data for each customer was then sold for around Rp 1 million, Aritonang added.
Meanwhile, BCA has reportedly blocked a number of ATM cards whose PIN numbers were likely to be susceptible to fraudulent transactions, detik.com reported.
The news portal quoted a man as saying that he had been asked by the bank to change his blocked ATM card because his PIN number had probably been "skimmed" (copied).
