Over the past week, Indonesia’s Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) has received dozens of complaints from customers whose money disappeared from their accounts as part of a suspected ATM skimming scheme.
One BRI customer, identified by his first name Lukas, thought he was among the skimming victims. Lukas, who is from Blitar, East Java, but currently works in Malaysia, told the media that he asked his sister to check his balance on an ATM, only to find that only around IDR300,000 (US$21.79) remained in the account, which previously held IDR39.5 million (US$2869.39).
According to Lukas, before his sister went to check his account balance, only he and his wife, who lives in Blitar, knew the PIN number for their account. That proved to be the key after BRI conducted an investigation into his case.
“We can with certainty say that the loss of money from the account was not the result of skimming,” BRI Corporate Secretary Bambang Tribaroto said, as quoted by Tempo.
“We have checked with the customer and it was proven that it was the result of a miscommunication between him and his wife. It turned out the wife withdrew the money.”
As embarrassing as Lukas’ case may be, BRI acknowledged that there are dozens of customers — most of them from Kediri, East Java — who have actually had money skimmed from their accounts by as of yet unidentified perpetrators who use sophisticated electronic methods to duplicate ATM cards.
BRI says it has reimbursed up to IDR145 million (US$10,533.20) to 33 customers, though the number of skimming victims may still rise.
The bank also says it’s currently focused on enhancing its IT security to prevent more ATM fraud.
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