WHEN next you see a stranger around an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) offering to help you with the use of your ATM card, it is better you be on the watch-out because he is likely to be one of those who are out to swindle bank customers using the cash dispenser.
This was the discovery made by the Oyo State Police Command on Friday, May 20, with the arrest of a 38-year-old man, Joshua Adejumo, who allegedly specialised in offering assistance to prospective bank customers, only to withdraw money from their accounts after cleverly stealing their ATM cards.
Speaking with Crime Reports on Thursday, May 26, the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Leye Oyebade said that the arrest of the suspect was sequel to a complaint lodged at Iyaganku police station.
According to the police commissioner, Adejuwon approached a sales girl, Abosede Ganiyu, who was sent by her boss, one Mrs Akanbi, to withdraw from the ATM in one of the first generation banks at Dugbe area of Ibadan. In the guise of helping the young lady, the suspect cunningly obtained the card’s PIN number, pretended as if the card got stuck in the ATM, only to swap it with another card.
Oyebade disclosed that Adejuwon, using the ATM card, quickly withdrew N214,000 from the owner’s account, after which he transferred N130,000 to his friend’s account. “During investigation, 14 different ATM cards were recovered from the suspect,” the police commissioner stated further, adding that Adejumo was arrested over a similar offence a few years ago and was charged to court.
He enjoined members of the public to protect their ATM cards and should on no account give it to someone who offers help to use it.
In his confession to Crime Reports, Adejuwon disclosed that he decided to engage in the act after he was also swindled in a similar way.
“What I usually do is to offer assistance to anyone struggling to use the ATM. In the guise of helping to withdraw the money, I would tell the owner that the card is stuck, asking the person to enter the banking hall to complain. Before his or her return, I would have removed the ATM card and swap it with a disused ATM card. I would thereafter use it to withdraw from the account of the owner,” the suspect said.
He stated further that he could not give account of the gains he had made from the crime as he had been using what he got to sustain life and living, saying that he was a driver before he got engaged in the criminal act.
Oyebade said that the suspect would be charged to court at the completion of investigation.
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