Customers of the Canara Bank’s off-site ATM at Kumbarkoppal on Wednesday were in for a surprise after they received ₹80,000 after requesting to withdraw ₹4,000. They got 20 times the money without deducting the additional amount from their SB accounts.
A few customers were left bewildered as they did not have such hefty amounts in their accounts in the first place. While the SMS alert indicated that ₹4,000 had been debited from their account and the correct balance displayed, the cash in hand was ₹80,000.
It transpired that the agency stocking the ATM with currency had by oversight placed ₹2,000 notes in the tray or cassette meant to dispense ₹100. So customers seeking ₹400 ended up with ₹8,000, while those withdrawing ₹4,000 got ₹80,000.
Confirming the incident, sources in the banking sector said the ATM had obsolete technology, entailing that the trays are arranged in a particular order. “Slight alteration in the arrangement of the cassette can result in erroneous dispensation of cash,” said the official, attributing the fault to the agency.
He said ₹2.8 lakh had been dispensed by the ATM as a result of wrong configuration of the tray. Of it, ₹1.7 lakh had been remitted by customers or recovered by the bank on Thursday. But in the case of customers who had withdrawn cash using debit cards issued by other banks, it is expected to take more time as the respective banks have to be contacted and the amount recovered from customers in case they have not volunteered to do so.
“Recovery is easy as all transactions from this ATM has come under the scanner and investigations will narrow down to SB accounts from which money was withdrawn. There is CCTV footage based on which customers can be identified,” sources said.
