The hackers made off with at least 12 million baht (US$346,000) by inserting cards installed with malware into multiple cash machines run by Thailand’s state-run Government Savings Bank (GSB) late last month.
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In the Kingdom, the hackers stole at least 12 million baht (more than 460.000 U.S. dollars) from the ATMs of Thailand’s state-run Government Savings Bank in late July, using malware-infected credit cards which they inserted in ATMs.
The theft came shortly after Taiwan announced that a group of foreigners had stolen US$2.5 million (S$3.4 million) from cash machines using a similar method.
A Latvian, a Romanian and a Moldovan were arrested over the heist in Taiwan, but a number of suspects – including five Russians – managed to flee overseas.
Thai police are seeking their Taiwanese counterpart’s assistance to investigate an ATM heist case after Taiwan authorities successfully cracked an worldwide ring involved in a similar ATM theft last month, Taiwan’s representative office in Thailand said Tuesday.
Police said at least 21 ATMs were hacked, some of them spitting out up to a million baht at a time.
In a statement, the association said a preliminary test showed that all member banks had the right system in place to reduce risks and increase security against malware.
The Police also issued a warning to Thai people, asking them to report on suspicious people who spend long periods of time in front of ATMs, mostly at night, since that is the pattern on which the gang is thought to be operating.
He said the ATM hard disks had been examined and were found to have malfunctioned after being infected, allowing the thieves to steal the money.
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Mr Chartchai said the bank had notified the Bank of Thailand about the electronic thefts so that commercial banks which have in their services similar brand of ATMs be warned and taken appropriate preventive measures.
