‘Skimming' of credit cards largely at unguarded ATMs

In today's technologically-driven banking, complaints of ‘skimming' of credit cards are on the rise, banking officials said in a seminar on secure banking practices organised by HDFC Bank here on Tuesday.

Skimming is the theft of credit card information used in a legitimate transaction. For instance, the fraudster can put a device over the card slot of an ATM, which reads the magnetic strip as the user unknowingly passes his/her card through it. A miniature camera attached to the ATM inconspicuously is used to read the user's PIN (personal identification number).

“Such instances of fraud are on the rise in the past three months across the country,” Mr Mahesh Rajaraman, Senior Vice-President – Risk Control, HDFC Bank, told

Business Line . He pointed out that that the risk of skimming is high in “largely unguarded ATMs”. To prevent this, “HDFC Bank has security personnel at all our 7,200 ATMs,” he said.

However, with awareness campaigns the number of complaints relating to banking frauds was coming down at HDFC Bank, said Mr Rajaraman, however declining to give further information on this.

Mr M. Palanisamy, Banking Ombudsman – RBI – Karnataka region, said that there have been about 100 complaints of skimming of cards in the past four months in Karnataka. “We have now told banks to limit the number of payments for recharge of prepaid connections etc to telecom providers from a payment card to three hits,” he said.

>anju@thehindu.co.in