Police arrest POS operator swindling customers in Edo

Operatives of the Edo State Police Command have arrested a POS operator, Agbo Monday Obande, who allegedly specialised in swapping customers’ ATM cards and defrauding them. Agbo was arrested by the command’s monitoring team on stop and search along Sapele road. He was paraded alongside 81 other suspects arrested for various crimes in the state. […]

Operatives of the Edo State Police Command have arrested a POS operator, Agbo Monday Obande, who allegedly specialised in swapping customers’ ATM cards and defrauding them.

Agbo was arrested by the command’s monitoring team on stop and search along Sapele road. He was paraded alongside 81 other suspects arrested for various crimes in the state.

The commissioner of police, CP Dankwara, said the suspect was arrested on December 10, with 47 ATM cards of different banks and two POS machines.

He said the suspect had confessed to swapping unsuspected innocent Nigerians’ ATM cards and defrauding them, adding that “on interrogation he could not give satisfactory explanation on how he got the items in his possession thereby making him a suspected fraudster.

He said “The suspect after slotting the ATM card on the machine, his accomplices will then video their customers as they inserted their pin and they will swap the card with their ATM and withdraw all the money in the customer’s account.

“He is a mobile ATM operator. They move from one place to another. He is not the only one and he has been doing it since the last five months.

Dankwara said the suspect would be charged to court.

In an interview with journalists, the suspect, who hails from Benue State, said he came to Benin in search of job and that he took to the crime to take care if his younger ones.

Narrating how they defrauded customers he said, “When customers give me ATM to withdraw money, while inserting pin, somebody would be watching to get the pin. Once, he is done we would swap the card with a fake one and use it to withdraw the money in the person’s account.

“I came from Benue and I got these ATMs from Otukpo. I came here to see a brother and to look for job. I am a POS operator, I have been in this business for five months and I have made N200,000.

“I feel very bad now because I have younger ones that are looking up to me. I venture in this business to be able to take care of them.”