More banks are rushing to protect customers after being alerted of suspected security compromise in its payment networks.
The Hindu on Tuesday reported that South Indian Bank was in the process of re-issuing over 5,000 cards after blocking them.
While another Kerala bank has already blocked online transactions from China and also cash withdrawal from there, yet another is speaking to its customers individually asking to change PIN numbers.
Sources said Federal Bank blocked over 5,000 cards during the third week of September after 11 of its staff members in Mumbai lost money to fraudulent transactions.
After detecting that the frauds were committed in China using cards of a global financial service agency, the bank had now blocked all transactions using the cards provided by the agency.
The bank had also asked its staff members to immediately block all cards in the 5327 series, bank sources said.
The quantum of money siphoned off by fraudsters is yet to be known.
Federal Bank has also initiated system-level blockage for withdrawal of money from China. It has also alerted customers to change their ATM PIN.
It is for the first time in the recent years that the banks are being forced to block cards en masse after financial agencies alerted about the possible frauds and detection of serious security compromises at some ATMs.
Agencies have cautioned a few banks and forwarded the list of cards that should be blocked after finding serious breaches of the online security system.
Individual calls
Dhanalakshmi Bank personally rang up 1,300 of its customers asking them to change their ATM pin.
The bank did this following alerts from the Payment Corporation of India and two international financial service agencies, a senior bank official said.
Besides the ATMs, security breaches could be possible in the ATM transaction servers or anywhere in the network.
