Three Nigerians believed to be members of a gang that manufactures and
uses cloned Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards to withdraw various
sums of money from the accounts of a number of bank customers have been
arrested.
The suspects who claim to be businessmen are: Emmanuel Onye Buchi
Umeononoabi, 27; Martin Sunday Akimnwunmi, 27; and Joseph Obiasogo, 32.
They are believed to have withdrawn and, in some cases, transferred
more than GH¢3 million from the accounts of customers of a number of
banks in Accra and other parts of the country.
A fourth member of the gang, Jonathan Agambila, who was arrested
earlier in November 2013, was tried and sentenced to a five-year prison
term with hard labour.
The police are still hunting for the leader of the gang, Paul Mbonu
Elochukwu, who is said to have provided the gadgets used for the cloning
of the ATM cards.
Items retrieved from them included magnetic stripe card reader and writer, a laptop and some cloned ATM cards.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Director of the Commercial Crime
Unit of the Police Service, Superintendent of Police, Mr Felix Mawusi,
said the suspects were arrested while they were in the process of
withdrawing money from an ATM installation.
He said members of the gang usually hang around ATM installations and
offer to help card users who struggle to withdraw money from their
accounts.
“Unknown to the card users, the suspects have devices such as phones
that have been fixed with micro-camera which they use to capture details
on the card and the Personal Identity Number (PIN),” he said.
The camera is said not to make any sound or flash while taking pictures.
With the aid of their ATM manufacturing devices and electronic software
applications, Mr Mawusi said, the gang then used the electronic code
data they had captured to read and write the PIN on a cloned card.
“They would withdraw money using the cloned cards while the original
card holders would realise the fraud only after money is withdrawn from
their accounts, without any clue on how their cards got misused,” he
said.
Stolen monies
Complaints by a number of victims, he said, triggered investigations which led to the arrest of the suspects.
He said between August 2012 and April 2014, the gang siphoned GH¢75,000 from one bank and GH¢2 million from three other banks.
Additionally, he said, a commercial bank detected in June 2014, a
number of illegal withdrawals of monies from its ATM installation to the
tune of GH¢102,243.28 at various regional capitals.
As part of investigations into the matter, he said, the bank retrieved
photographs of persons suspected to be behind the illegal transactions
from their closed circuit television (CCTV) systems.
Arrest at Tarkwa
The pictures, he stated, were then circulated to the appropriate
agencies and at about 1:30 p.m. on November 25, Akimnwunmi, who did not
know he was being monitored, withdrew GH¢2,000 from a bank’s ATM at
Tarkwa in the Western Region.
“When he was arrested, he admitted the account he had withdrawn the
money from was not his. A search was conducted on him and later in his
house,” Supt Mawusi said.
He said the police found a laptop, a magnetic stripe card reader and
writer, 19 cloned ATM cards with six of them having handwritten Personal
Identification Numbers (PIN) stuck on them; two passports and an
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) travel document.
Akimnunmi mentioned Obiasogo as his accomplice and assisted the police to arrest him.
“The two of them mentioned Paul Mbonu Elochukwu as the person who gave
them the cloned cards to withdraw the money,” Supt Mawusi added.
He also said Mawusi told the police that Umeononoabi was arrested on
April 27, 2014 when he also went to an ATM in Accra to withdraw money
with a card which was not his. He was put before an Accra Circuit Court
but pleaded not guilty and had since been on remand.
The three suspects are now assisting the police with investigations.
source: Graphiconline
