Eleven people in Khon Kaen have reported big holes in their bank accounts after they used their cards at an ATM in the northeastern province.
The ATM in question belongs to Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and police suspected it might have had a skimmer installed, Thai media reported.
Pimpaka Panomsiri reported on Friday that when she used her Krungthai Bank ATM card to withdraw some cash from an ATM, she found her balance sharply lower than it was supposed to be. She earlier had 7,400 baht but the ATM showed only 400 baht available.
When she checked with Krungthai Bank where she had the account, she was told the money was withdrawn a day earlier in Chiang Mai.
Pol Lt Col Norawat Kampilo, deputy police chief of Muang district, said 11 people had reported similar incidents with damages ranging from 7,000 to 80,000 baht, totalling 200,000 baht.
What the victims all had in common was that they used their ATM cards at the SCB machine.
Later, there were reports that SCB had voided all of its ATM cards in Khon Kaen. The bank later denied the report, saying it had voided only cards at risk or those used at the machine in Khon Kaen around the time the incidents took place.
The victims reportedly were repaid the missing amounts.
Adul Kamchoo, a director at the Bank of Thailand's northeastern office, told the Bangkok Post on Saturday that he would ask SCB branch managers in the affected area for more information.
Customers whose accounts and ATM cards were frozen can apply for new cards and passbooks at all branches, he said.
He added that the bank insisted only seven people were affected by the scam.
"We also asked all banks to check the readiness and security of their ATMs. SCB customers who are not satisfied with the bank's solutions can call the 1213 hotline around the clock," he said.
"SCB customers who are not satisfied with the bank's solutions can call the hot line 1213 around the clock," says Mr Adul. (Photo by Chakrapan Natanri)
Skimming is done by installing a small device about the size of a deck of cards in an ATM to collect data from customers' cards. The devices can also be used along with a stealth camera to record PIN key sequences. Alternatively, a thin film can be used to cover the keypad and collect the pressed key sequences.
With the card data and password, a scammer can make new cards and withdraw money from any machine.
Aware of the problem, the central bank has encouraged all banks to switch from magnetic-strip cards to chip-based ones for which the chance of fraud is drastically reduced.
Banks are phasing out their magnetic-strip cards but the major problem that discourages consumers from using chip-based cards is that they can only be used at the issuing banks' machines at the moment.
To date, most of the scamming cases in Thailand have involved foreign gangs.