People complaining to the cyber police and banks say that they neither received a call from anyone, nor did they share ATM PIN and OTP with anyone, nor did they ever click on any link, but thousands of rupees were withdrawn from their account.

According to Sumit Saurabh Lakda, DSP of Cyber Cell, it is a case of identity theft rather than cybercrime. Fingerprints are commonly used by people to get a new SIM, update Aadhaar, biometric attendance and withdraw money through customer care centres. Criminals apply a special type of chemical to the machine in which people give their fingerprints. After the people leave, they clone the fingerprints from the chemical.

It is being said that illegal withdrawals ranging from Rs 7,000 to Rs 24,000 have been made from the accounts of most of the people two-three times. Businessmen, doctors, women were among those whose accounts were targeted.