NEW DELHI: The Delhi State-Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) is suggesting a host of measures to prevent ATM frauds, which are on the rise, including a time lag of six to 12 hours between two transactions."A lot of these frauds happen at night, from around midnight to early morning. A bar on transactions for a certain period can help," said Mukesh Kumar Jain, MD and CEO of Oriental Bank of Commerce, the Delhi SLBC convener.The plan was discussed during a meeting of 18 bank representatives last week as part of a bottoms-up ideation exercise for banks started at the behest of the department of financial services. If the proposal is accepted, you will not be able to withdraw cash for a stipulated period.During 2018-19, 179 ATM fraud cases were reported in Delhi, which was the second highest in the country after 233 in Maharashtra. In recent months, cloning of cards has been on the rise with foreign nationals seen to be involved in a large number of cases. Across the country, the number of frauds that were reported rose to 980 in 2018-19, compared to 911 in the previous year.Jain said that bankers have suggested several other measures, including a one time password-linked withdrawals to alert account holders in case an unauthorised withdrawal is being attempted. The system will be similar to the one used for online transactions using credit or debit cards. Further, the bankers are looking at a centralised monitoring system for ATMs with a two-way communication.So, if someone walks into an ATM with a helmet, the voice on the other side advises him to take it off. Similarly, even in bank branches, customers have been advised to stay away from the teller, while the camera keeps an eye on the ATM even if the guard dozes off.Currently 300 of OBC's 2,600 ATMs are covered by the system. While it helps keep tabs on the ATMs through a control room at the bank's head office as well as at the vendor's office, once the project is implemented across its network, OBC is expecting an annual savings of around Rs 50 crore as guards will become redundant.Read this story in Gujarati