A 44-year-old man, Michael Joseph, who specialises in defrauding persons that don’t know how to operate the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM), has been arrested with 31 ATM cards from different banks in Bauchi State.
A police spokesman in the state, SP Ahmed Wakil, who paraded the suspect to newsmen, said that on November 30, 2022, a woman went to First Bank on Bank Road for a transaction and that while she was in a queue at the ATM gallery, the suspect insisted to know the type of ATM card she was using for the transaction.
He said the woman said she was not comfortable with his curiosity and reported him to the bank’s security who apprehended him and found in his possession 31 ATM cards.
Wakil further said, “On interrogation, the suspect revealed he hailed from Benue State but came to Plateau State to seek a job. He has been a bus driver for three years in Jos, Plateau State. He was introduced to the fraud activity by one Magaji from Kano State when they met at a beer parlour in Jos.
“The suspect easily gets the ATM card pin of his victims when he assists them with a transaction, where he quickly swaps a victim’s ATM card with an old one from the same bank in his possession.”
He further said investigation revealed that the suspect successfully defrauded N18,000 from his first victim at Access Bank, while the second victim he defrauded N25,000 at Micro Finance Bank is in Plateau State. As the suspect succeeded at two distinct fraudulent activities, he decided to fly to Bauchi State to further his fraudulent activities but met his waterloo when he attempted to defraud a lady at the First Bank ATM gallery situated at banks road, Bauchi.
