State Bank of Travancore blocks over 6 lakh ATM cards

Thiruvananthapuram: In a swift and surprising move, the State Bank of Travancore  blocked over six lakh ATM cards in the last two days. The customers of the blocked cards  will have to secure  new cards from the bank. They have also been advised to change their PIN number. The new cards will be distributed free, the bank said. Currently, these customers possess magnetic cards and the bank intends to replace them  with new chip cards.

The blocked cards were of  customers who had used the “compromised” ATMs in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. Though many customers were caught off-guard, bank authorities maintained that they had sent SMS alerts before blocking them. The move, according to bank sources, is a step  to pre-empt the kind of frauds reported recently where skimmers and hidden cameras were used to spy on passwords, create fake cards  and draw money from other locations, mostly outside the state, even foreign ones.