Cases of fraudulent withdrawal of money with cloned ATM cards are on the rise with more and more people being caught unawares by secret depreciation of savings from their bank accounts.

At least five such cases of unlawful withdrawal of lakhs of rupees with the help of duplicate ATM cards from various cash dispensing machines across the city have come to light in the past few days.

According to police, such withdrawals were made when ATM cards were with the respective account holders.

The swindlers would insert a card reader device into the ATM's slot and place a micro-camera behind the machine to record the password entered by the cardholder.

On the basis of the information obtained, the conman would produce a cloned ATM card and use it at another ATM to withdraw money, police said.

Police suspect such thefts to be the handiwork of organised gangs. Recently, one such gang which had withdrawn about Rs three lakh from accounts of different cardholders in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali, was busted.

Police say that in order to solve such cases, they have been conducting inquiries and analysing CCTV footage from banks to get clues about the burglars.

The cyber crime cell of the city police has also become active in determining ways to prevent such cloning.