‘May I help you, Uncle’: Sr citizen loses 27k to shoulder-surfing fraud
Times of India | 15 July 2025
Kolkata: In yet another incident of "shoulder surfing" leading to ATM fraud by trained fraudsters, a 65-year-old resident of north Kolkata fell victim to a card swap scam, losing Rs 27,200 through unauthorised transactions. Pradip Kumar Hela, a resident of Gauribari Lane, reported that while attempting to withdraw money from a public sector bank ATM on Ultadanga Main Road on July 11, he encountered difficulties with the ATM. An unidentified individual offered assistance and requested Hela to enter his PIN while standing beside him. During this interaction, the accused allegedly switched Hela's ATM card with an identical old card.
"The ATM was not working properly and an unknown person came in and tried to help me and asked me to type the PIN. He was standing by my side and changed my ATM with a fake one," Hela wrote in his complaint. Following the incident, Hela received multiple transaction alerts on his account. The unauthorised withdrawals included amounts of Rs 944, Rs 10,027, Rs 5,027, Rs 6,000, and Rs 5,200, totalling Rs 27,200. These transactions were confirmed in the bank statement of his account number that the cops later obtained. The police are now checking CCTV footage for leads.
Shoulder surfing involves incidents in which a criminal closely observes shoppers and notes down their PIN numbers when they are paying for goods or, what has been more common in this gang's case, when they use an ATM. The cards are then stolen and used for purchasing goods elsewhere.
The case has been registered as an FIR by Ultadanga police, and the detective department is helping with the probe. The incident has prompted cops to advise ATM users, particularly elderly citizens, to exercise caution while conducting transactions. They recommend declining assistance from strangers at ATM kiosks and ensuring privacy while entering PINs.
"The Tollygunge Police last year arrested one such accused and found him involved in several similar cases. Several gangs from Bihar are experts in this, having struck earlier as far as Hyderabad and Chandigarh," said a police officer.