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Bank official arrested over ATM hacking: Police
Police have arrested a bank official in connection with the recent spate of ATM fraud, which incurred more than Rp 6 billion in losses from various banks
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P
olice have arrested a bank official in connection with the recent spate of ATM fraud, which incurred more than Rp 6 billion in losses from various banks.
National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi, however, declined to identify the arrested bank official or the name the suspect’s bank on the grounds that it could stir panic and undermine public trust in the banking system.
“We arrested the official on Saturday last week and detained the suspect at the National Police detention center,” Ito told journalists in Jakarta on Monday.
“All I can say right now is that this bank official holds a managerial post and in is charge of issuing debit cards. This official lives in Java,” he said.
Besides the bank official, he added, the police also planned to question contract workers from outsourcing companies that were tasked to carry out maintenance of bank’s IT systems.
“Our investigation is still in progress,” he said.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang, who also attended the press conference, said the police had also managed to uncover the involvement of an international syndicate behind the wave of ATM fraud in Jakarta.
The police have identified three foreign nationals in connection with the syndicate. They have been identified as Ming Ming and Edward, both Australians, and Valentina Borison, a Canadian.
According to Edward, the three foreigners sent the equipment needed to hijack data from ATM machines.
“Some of the stolen money was stored at a bank in Canada. The police have information that
Ming Ming received Rp 1.6 billion for his role.”
The equipment was sent to someone named Alex Rusli, alias Edwin Sanjaya, who resides in Jakarta.
Alex then installed the equipment, widely known as “skimmer” and CCTV cameras in seven different locations.
Edward said that for doing his job, Alex received around 20 percent of the stolen funds, or equal to Rp 400 million.
Once the data was recorded, a group of people led by Hendro Basuki alias Sen Cien took over by withdrawing money from several different locations.
At least six people by the name of Roni, Martin, Yus, Awi, Diana and Budi helped Hendro, Edward said.
In Bali, where the first reports of ATM hacking cases were reported, police acknowledged they had difficulty in investigating the crime.
Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutisna said the local police had found it difficult to collect material evidence and other clues from the crime scenes.
“We also lacked eyewitnesses,” Sutisna said as quoted by detik.com. in Denpasar on Monday.
He said the ATMs that had been hacked were not provided with close circuit cameras.
“The absence of CCTV cameras made it difficult for us to investigate,” he said.
He added that local police were yet to find evidence, such as skimmers and cameras that the thieves used to spy on patrons at ATM booths.
He said that people were still reporting lost savings to the police.
