PUNE: A 77-year-old man, who had sought help from a stranger to secure his bank account’s mini statement from an ATM, found himself fleeced of Rs60,000.
The incident occurred at an ATM kiosk in Sangvi on September 14, when the stranger, on the pretext of offering to help the elderly complainant, swapped his debit card with a someone else’s card, police said.
The elderly man, a resident of Pimple Gurav, filed a police complaint on Sunday.
An officer from the Sangvi police said the complainant had gone to the Sangvi branch of a public sector bank to update his passbook. “The passbook could not get updated due to some problem. A stranger approached the man and said he would be able to help him get a mini statement from the ATM,” he said.
The unsuspecting complainant accompanied the man to the ATM kiosk. “He gave his debit card and shared its PIN,” the officer said.
He said the man printed the mini-statement and returned the card to the complainant. “On Friday, the senior citizen received SMS alerts about the withdrawal of Rs 60,000 from his bank account,” the officer said. The elderly man then checked his debit card and was shocked to see it was someone else’s. “He realised the stranger at bank had swapped the cards,” the officer said.
The officer said they have collected CCTV footage from the bank.
