Authorities believe ATM card scammers are responsible for thefts from more than a dozen bank accounts in Bali. (SP Photo)
Denpasar. As the number of people reporting bank account thefts through ATMs in Bali rose to 30, Police said on Friday that they had arrested three people elsewhere on suspicion of ATM-related crimes.
Insp. Gen. Sutisna of the Bali Police said the bulk of victims who had reported their bank accounts had been broken into filed criminal complaints in Denpasar.
Fifteen of the victims were clients of BCA, the country’s largest private bank, nine were with Bank Permata, four were with BNI and one with Bank Mandiri, while a visiting Dutch national said Rp 13.5 million ($1,458) had been stolen from her account with ING Netherlands. ATMs from 14 banks are believed to have been tapped.
Dutch national Scheemaker Van Leem, who was vacationing in Bali with her husband, told Bali police in her report that she noticed the missing money after she used her ING Netherlands card at a Citibank ATM in Denpasar. ING Netherlands informed her later that funds had been withdrawn in Jakarta.
“I’ve only been in Bali, never to Jakarta,” Van Leen said in her report. She said that she now would probably have to postpone her return to the Netherlands on Feb. 4.
Gusti Ayu Ratih, another victim, said she had received a Rp 5 million transfer from an unfamiliar source on Jan. 16, 2010. But shortly afterward, Rp 6 million was withdrawn from her account in four separate installments.
The Bali Police are currently working on a thin clue: Closed circuit television images of a man withdrawing money from a BCA ATM in Denpasar, Sutisna said.
“On the CCTV recording we saw a suspicious person. It was hard to identify the person as he was wearing a helmet. We had to keep replaying [the video],” Sutisna said.
National Police Chief of Detectives Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said that three men had been arrested for breaking into bank accounts using the ATMs of several banks. Two were caught in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, and one in Jakarta.
Ito declined to comment on the pair detained in Pontianak, but said the person caught in Jakarta, identified by his initial F, was arrested along with evidence in the form of Rp 23 million in cash, a computer, a skimming device and various ATM cards.
He said all chief detectives in the regions had been ordered to report any bank account theft case in their region.
BCA Vice President Director Jahja Setiaatmadja said the bank had temporarily blocked transactions with Australia and Canada following suspicions money was illegally withdrawn there.
“In 90 percent of the scams, it [the money] was withdrawn in Australia,” he said, adding that the other 10 percent was withdrawn in Canada.
The bank has said 200 customers had been robbed of some Rp 5 billion.
A police source revealed that in October, Jakarta Police had arrested eight people for skimming at BCA ATMs.
One, identified by his initials AR, used to study information technology in Australia. Currently on trial, AR is believed to be part of an international network headquartered in Canada.
The chief of Jakarta Police’s Violent Crimes Unit, and the Jakarta Police spokesman declined to comment, saying police had made a commitment to the bank, which did not wish to alarm its clients.
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