Thefts from Santander accounts. The prosecutor’s office calls on the victims to report

The District Prosecutor’s Office in Bydgoszcz is conducting a nationwide investigation into the theft of money from Santander Bank Polska customer accounts. According to “Gazeta Pomorska”, investigators are appealing to all injured parties who have not yet done so to report suspected crimes to the nearest police station. Reports will be included in one collective proceeding, and their authors will receive the status of injured parties.

The investigation is gaining momentum

The matter gained momentum after the bank’s weekend announcement. On Sunday, October 26, Santander announced that monitoring had detected criminal transactions carried out using customers’ payment cards. The bank assured that it had implemented measures to prevent further actions of the perpetrators. At the beginning of the week, the police received about 200 reports, which confirms the scale of the problem.

The investigation was entrusted to the Bydgoszcz Management Board of the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime. According to the findings so far, the activities were “planned and organized” and several people took part in them. The criminals gained unauthorized access to payment card data and then withdrew cash from ATMs in various towns. From the beginning, one of the main clues was skimming – installing special tracking overlays on ATMs that capture information from the strip or chip and data needed to authorize the transaction.

The bank returns the money

Important information for customers: the bank has already refunded funds lost as a result of identified unauthorized transactions. Nevertheless, the prosecutor’s office encourages formal reporting of cases, because each notification strengthens the evidence and can speed up the identification of all places and mechanisms used by the perpetrators.

The investigators’ appeal also has a preventive dimension. Reports allow you to better map events and secure your ATM infrastructure. In practice, this means faster detection and disassembly of suspicious overlays, as well as more intensive cooperation with device operators and services. The more information that goes to CBZC, the easier it is to reconstruct the entire chain of events – from obtaining card data to withdrawals in specific locations.

As law enforcement authorities emphasize, victims should collect basic materials: account history printouts with visible transactions, confirmation from the bank regarding the complaint and correspondence with the hotline or branch. Reporting to the police is crucial even if the bank has returned the money – criminal proceedings concern the crime, and not only settlements with the financial institution.

The proceedings conducted by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Bydgoszcz and CBZC are nationwide and cover all reported cases. The investigators’ goal is to determine the perpetrators, their method of operation and the full scale of losses. At the same time, we are reminded of the basic safety rules when using ATMs: paying attention to unnatural elements near the card slot or keyboard, covering the PIN and quickly contacting the bank and the police in case of suspicion.