The Commissionerate Police in Bhubaneswar nabbed two ATM fraudsters in the Smart City on Monday. Rs 5.5 lakh cash and gold jewellery weighing 50 gm have been recovered from them.
The fraudsters have been identified as Manoj Sahu and Gobardhan Patra.
As per the police, their modus operandi involved targeting people who do not know how to use an ATM card. They offer to help people inside ATM kiosks and after knowing their PIN, the accused would replace the ATM card with another similar looking card and return it to the account holder.
Once the unsuspecting account holder leaves the kiosk with a fake card, the accused used to withdraw small amounts of cash multiple times until the account is wiped clean. In some cases, the duo even purchased jewellery using some ATM cards in order to empty the account sooner.
The duo was nabbed after a woman filed a complaint at Laxmisagar Police Station on January 6.
Informing about the same, Bhubaneswar Zone – 2 ACP, SN Muduli said, “The accused used to operate on trial and error basis. Not all people would allow them to see their ATM PIN. But there are some, mostly senior citizens or illiterate persons, who fall prey to their fraud.”
“The accused duo has five cases pending in different police station in their names, out of which three cases are registered in Bhubaneswar Urban Police District (UPD) and it involves fraud to the tune of Rs 15 lakh. We have recovered Rs 5.5 lakh and jewellery weighing 5 gm from them,” Muduli said.
(Reported By Alok Mohanty, OTV)