Detectives from the criminal investigation are investigation the Barclays bank ATM robbery which is linked to “jackpotting” — a new twist in high-tech bank theft that involves programming ATM machines to empty themselves in one long, rapid-fire disbursal.
Flying Squad officers last evening were searching for a Toyota Probox caught on camera with three men believed to be the cybercriminals who stole more than Sh11 million from four ATMs in Nairobi.
The details emerged as police uncovered the sophisticated technology the criminals used to empty the ATM machines.
Jackpotting is the high-tech version of the old-time bank robbery. Thieves work in teams. An advance team disguised as ATM technicians opens the machines and corrupts the computer programming in a way that permits a second team to arrive and deliver a signal that causes the machines to empty themselves. It is assumed that the machines can hold as much as Ksh 5,000,000.
The Barclays heist was the first major case of ATM jackpotting in Kenya since the crime hit the US last year, the police say.
The Star has established that officers have obtained CCTV footage from the city where a young man was caught boarding a Probox, believed to be a taxi in South B with a rucksack.
Police suspect the man, estimated to be aged between 25 and 30, were part of a cyber gang that emptied three ATMs belonging to Barclays bank of the millions of shillings during the Easter holidays.
Yesterday, the Star established that police had obtained CCTV footage from areas adjacent to the ATMs from which three young men are said to have emptied the cash dispensing machines.
The footage has similarities with descriptions of ATM Jack potters in the US.
In one incident, a young man, estimated to be aged between 25 and 30, is seen dressed in a grey cap and a green T-shirt. He is seen carrying a rucksack that police believe was used to carry the money emptied from a cash machine at The Mater Hospital.
The footage was harvested from a building near the hospital where the man is also seen boarding a Probox which police suspect is a taxi.
In the second footage, the same man is spotted together with two other men also dressed in caps to hide their faces around Kenyatta National Hospital where a second ATM was emptied.
The man in the same green T-shirt and grey cap is seen entering the same Probox.
Police suspect they were leaving the KNH ATM.
Police believe the theft of Sh11.2 million from four Barclays Bank ATMs was an inside job.
They said it probably involved bank employees and workers of a security firm associated with the bank.
Could Probox be the next crime cars ?