Police arrest notorious fraudster who specializes in stealing ATM cards from victims

The Katsina State Police Command has arrested a 21-year-old notorious fraudster, who specializes in stealing ATM cards from unsuspecting members of the public at various ATM points in the state.

Spokesperson of the command, SP Gambo Isah, who disclosed this in a statement on Monday, May 31, said the suspect, Aliyu Abdullahi, confessed to have withdrawn N1.6 million from different accounts of six of his victims.

"On 24/05/2021 at about 11:00hrs, based on top off, the Command succeeded in arresting one Aliyu Abdullahi, 'M', aged 21yrs of Kasuwar Mata Quarters, Funtua, a notorious fraudster who specializes in defrauding unsuspecting members of the public who went ATM points to withdraw cash," Gambo stated.

"In the course of the investigation, the suspect confessed that his modus operandi is to hanged out between UBA and First Bank ATM points along IBB way, Katsina. And what he does was to patiently wait for an operator whose ATM was rejected because of inexperience with the operation of the machine.

"He then came in and pretended to render assistance and in the process, he swapped the victim's ATM card with a fake one. He already had the victim's ATM card and PIN number, he will then quickly ran to another ATM point and withdraw all the money in the account. The suspect confessed to have withdrawn over the sum of one million, six hundred and six thousand, four hundred naira (6,606,400, 000) from different accounts of six (6) of his victims. An investigation is ongoing."