Jakarta, Jan 22 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian police are working closely with banks to protect customers and investigate this week's reports of ATM break-in cases which may cause national banks to lose about Rp5 billion.
"The Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) of the National Police has sent telegrams to all regional police chief detectives throughout Indonesia to report ATM break-in cases," Bareskrim Head Commissioner General Ito Sumardi said on Friday.
The telegrams contained calls on all directors of Regional Police's Criminal Investigation Department to file reports on any ATM hacking case in their respective region.
Previously some bank customers in Bali have reported that their money has been stolen by ATM hackers. They installed ATM skimming devices and spy cameras to steal information stored on the magnetic strip of customers' ATM cards and duplicated them to rob customers accounts.
Customers who lodged their complaints among others belonged to Mandiri Bank, Bank Central Asia (BCA), BII, Bank Permata, BRI and Bank BNI .
Sumardi said that he had appointed Bareskrim's Director for Special Economic Affairs Brig. Gen Radja Erizman as chairman of a police team in charge of investigating cases of ATM hacking in a number of regions in the country.
Police are gathering initial indications of their modus operandi for thorough investigation, including studying reports from all regional Bareskrim chiefs.
"We will collect all information for further investigation," Sumardi said. Police will detect the syndication of the ATM hackers in a number of national banks in the country.
So far, police have named a man identified by his initial as 'F' a suspect in the theft of bank customers' money through forged ATM cards and PINs, They also arrested two other suspects on Friday.
The National Police's chief detective, Commissioner General Ito Sumardi, said F was suspected of having stolen the money kept at a number of banks in Bali. The officers have also confiscated Rp23 million in cash, computers, several ATM cards and skimmers.
General Ito Sumardi, said F was suspected of having stolen the money kept at a number of banks in Bali. He was believed he had been stealing money through ATM break-in practice for a long time.
According to Director for Special Economic Affairs of the Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), Brig. Gen. Radja Erizman F was arrested in Jakarta. He was believed to be involved in the ATM scam because his modus operandi was the same as that of the syndicate that hacked the ATMs of national banks in Bali.
The thieves also use spy cameras to know the personal identification numbers (PINs) of bank customers.
In the meantime, BCA said on Friday it was temporarily closing its ATM for the withdrawal of funds from Australia. ATM break-in incidences have also been reported in Australia.
"For the time being, we are closing for the withdrawal of funds from Australia," BCA vice president director Jahja Setiaatmadja told the press on Friday.
According to an AFP report, an international criminal group has reportedly stolen some $50 million Australian ($45.5 million US) from customers who swiped their credit or debit cards at retail checkouts.
The spate of attacks on the so-called EFTPOS machines that typically sit next to cash registers is "the biggest I've ever seen," New South Wales fraud squad head Detective Superintendent Colin Dyson told the news site heraldsun.com.au.
Police officials in Bali, however, said on Thursday that they had found a device used to steal the codes from ATMs.
Ito Sumardi said the police were investigating a possible connection between the thefts and an international syndicate which is allegedly led by two Russians living overseas.
The Jakarta Globe quoted Denpasar Police chief Senior Commissioner Gede Alit Widana as saying on Thursday that in October 2009, the Jakarta police arrested seven local perpetrators but they're only the operatives, because the masterminds are two Russians in a foreign country.
The police had located the leaders of the syndicate, he added, but they were unable to arrest them due to difficulties in extraditing them.
"We discussed the case with the National Police and Jakarta Police and we are convinced the crime was conducted by the same syndicate," he said.
According to Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank), the ATM break-in incidence could incur a loss to banks amounting to Rp5 billion . "From the reports we received until Thursday, we estimate the ATM attacks could cause a loss of Rp5 billion in at least four banks," BI Spokesman Difi A Johansyah said.
However, BI guaranteed that money stolen by ATM hackers would be refunded.
(T.A014/H-NG/H-YH)
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