CAUTION! How your money can be stolen via your own ATM card

“What I do is I monitor people making withdrawals in ATM and I go close to them and pretend to help and when I notice the persons pin number I immediately memorise it and while the person is counting his money, I swap his ATM card with an invalid one and later use it to make withdrawals from his account”.

Those were the words of a 23- year old graduate of the Federal University of Agriculture in Makurdi, Benue state, who was recently arrested in Calabar, Cross Rivers State.

While being paraded by the police on Thursday, the suspect, Ondavey Weize, who spoke to journalists, revealed how he swapped the ATM cards of unsuspecting people with invalid ones and later used them to withdraw huge sums from their account.

Weize was arrested last weekend in Calabar while trying to swap one of his invalid cards with that of another person he had helped at the premises of a new generation bank. In his possession were 60 ATM cards and N258,000 cash.

The Commissioner of Police in Cross River State, Mr Titilayo Busari, said “He used those cards in withdrawing large sums of money from the accounts of the victims.

He warned people to be careful of whom they asked for assistance while using the ATM. “They should ask the bank staff to help them or should come with trusted people from their homes to avoid falling into the wrong hands” he said.

The Benue State-born suspect who told journalists that he came to Calabar from Abuja two weeks ago, also said that he lavished the money in hotels and night clubs.