Police arrest Bulgarian stealing Rs 12 m from ATMs

KATHMANDU, March 26: The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police on Tuesday arrested a Bulgarian national on the charge of stealing over Rs 12 million from different Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), using fake ATM cards.

Following CCTV footage of suspicious activities of an ATM user, a squad from CIB arrested 42-year- old Petroslav Hristov, a Bulgarian with passport number 382187816, from Temple Tiger Apartment, Tridevi Marg-29 in Kathmandu. Making the man public on Wednesday, CIB Director DIG Hemanta Malla said the arrest should sound an alarm on the vulnerability of banking security in Nepal.


Himalayan Bank complained to police after noticing the suspicious activities of a man in a mask and cap carrying several ATM cards and withdrawing amounts less than Rs 10,000 at a time and then visiting another ATM after an interval of 15 minutes.

Police suspect that Hristov, a hotel manager by occupation, is part of a big racket behind ATM fraud. Investigations showed that he had stolen money from account holders in France, Sweden and other European countries, after stealing pin numbers and other pin data.

Malla said, "The Bulgarian citizen has been found visiting Nepal four times in the last six months through extensions of his visa and he last entered Nepal on 13th March." Police also suspect him of other unauthorized transactions during earlier visits but this is yet to be verified. He is found to have travelled to Mauritius, Kenya, the Bahamas and Indonesia, countries with considerably weak banking security and loopholes in legal provisions, police added.

Hristov was arrested in possession of 179 international master cards, a laptop, Rs 1.8 million, 57,200 Euro, 40,000 USD and two mini magnetic strip readers used for data transfer, among other things.

Though police have some information on unauthorized persons withdrawing money from different banks, the actual accounts holder had not noticed. The fraudsters withdraw small amounts so that the withdrawals would go unnoticed, DIG Malla said.

Police have urged banks to ascertain the security of their ATM cards and immediately inform police in case of any suspicious transactions. CIB has also urged Nepal Rastra Bank to seek out loopholes in bank security, especially in online transactions, and requested all ATM card holders to regularly check their bank statements after using ATM cards.

Police last November arrested a Turkish national, Mehmat Gulen, from Thamel, on a similar charge of withdrawing money with fake ATM cards.

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