KUALA LUMPUR: Police have launched ‘Ops Godam ATM” with a special squad from Bukit Aman and the state contingents involved following several incidents of automated teller machine (ATM) hacking resulting in more than RM1 million in losses so far.
Federal police Commercial Crimes Investigation Department deputy director (Cyber and Multimedia Crimes) SAC Mohd Kamarudin Md Din said a major manhunt for the criminals still at large had been launched.
According to him, police believed members of the syndicate, said to be from Latin America and West Asia, were still in the country.
“Therefore, we have activated monitoring at all land, sea and air exit points in the country,” he told Bernama today.
In the latest case, police received another report of ATM hacking at a bank in Kota Damansara involving losses amounting to about RM300,000.
Earlier yesterday, Affin Bank in a statement said a total of RM1.271 million was stolen from six ATMs belonging to Affin Bank and Affin Islamic Bank Berhad in Johor, Melaka and Selangor.
The ATM machines were located at Johor Baharu, Batu Pahat and Taman Molek in Johor; Melaka Raya; PJ State and USJ in Selangor. The bank said customer data was not affected or compromised.
According to police, the incident in Kota Damansara involved cash theft at one ATM even though two ATMs were found tampered with by syndicate members.
About seven ATMs of the two banking groups were hacked believed using a telephone SIM card and latest telephony technology on Saturday.
According to Mohd Kamarudin, the banks involved were conducting a review to acsertain the actual date of thefts.
He said pictures of the suspects from closed circuit television (CCTV) recording have been circulated nationwide for monitoring at all entry points.
According to him, no arrests have been made and the suspects have yet to be identified. — Bernama