3rd ATM found to have been skimmed: DBS

DBS said Friday that they believe that a third ATM machine was compromised at around the same time of the Bugis skimming.

This could have led to the latest spate of unauthorised withdrawals on Sunday.

The bank was alerted to unauthorised ATM withdrawals by 17 customers after they received real-time SMS alerts.

After which, common patterns among the affected customers established through analytics allowed the bank to conclude that a different ATM was compromised in addition to the two Bugis ATMs previously identified.

"We are unable to disclose further details, as this may jeopardise the ongoing investigation," the bank told The Straits Times.

In last Sunday's series of ATM withdrawals, fraudsters stole a total of $23,000 before they were discovered. The previous operation had stolen about $1 million from 700 customers.

The unauthorised withdrawals first began last month, with customers reporting sums of money being withdrawn from Kuala Lumpur when they were not in Malaysia at that time.

DBS initially believed the frauds to be contained to Jan 4 and 5.

To guard against further fraud, DBS had de-activated and replaced 2,726 customer cards deemed high risk, and blocked overseas ATM withdrawals unless requested not to by customers.

However, the fraudsters changed tactic to make the withdrawals locally instead.