BRI TO REFUND CUSTOMERS' STOLEN MONEY

Jakarta, Jan 23 (ANTARA) - PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) said it would refund customers' money stolen by bank automatic teller machine (ATM) hackers, a BRI official said.

BRI Corporate Secretary Muhammad Ali said over the weekend that his bank would refund customers' money if losses they suffered from the bank's ATM break-in could be proven that they were not caused by the customers' negligence themselves.

He said up to Thursday, three customers had lodged complaint of stolen money with a potential loss of Rp48,500,000.

Ali called on bank customers to change their personal identification numbers (PIN) periodically.

BRI has formed a task force to mitigate risks and take follow up steps on customers' complaints.

Previously some bank customers in Bali have reported that their money has been stolen by ATM hackers. They installed ATM skimming devices and spy cameras to steal information stored on the magnetic strip of customers' ATM cards and duplicated them to rob customers accounts.

Customers who lodged their complaints among others belonged to Mandiri Bank, Bank Central Asia (BCA), BII, Bank Permata, BRI and Bank BNI
Bank Indonesia said that the potential losses in the ATM scams of at least four national banks could reach Rp5 billion.