EFCC arrests syndicate behind ATM fraud - Reveals how ATM cards are cloned - Banker used cloned card to steal N12m from customer’s account
Lanre Adewole, Abuja.


The suspects arrested by EFCC officials THE nightmare being experienced by users of the Automated Teller Machine {ATM} over its high susceptibility to fraud may soon be over with the bursting of a syndicate adept at cloning of ATM cards by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission {EFCC}.

The trans-state operations carried out by the commission’s operatives which saw them combing states in about three geo-political zones reportedly led to the discovery of the syndicate which specialised in cloning ATM cards which enabled those behind it to access users’ accounts without even knowing the identities of the victims.

The syndicate is also suspected to be behind the Interswitch fraud message that is sent to unsuspecting members of the public demanding their secret PIN number for update of their account data, while a banker arrested in the course of the sweeping operations, Ms. Cassandra Olaleye reportedly confessed to using the cloned ATM cards to steal about N12 million from the account of a customer with her bank.

Commission’s spokesperson, Mr. Femi Babafemi while speaking on the breakthrough by the commission on ATM fraud stated that “the aggressive campaign by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC against Automated Teller Machine (ATM) fraudsters recorded a major breakthrough last week with the arrest in Lagos, of three powerful members of a crack syndicate whose area of speciality is the cloning of ATM cards using Magnetic Card Reader/Encoder Machine.

“The trio, Chris Okeke, Nicholas Egboh and Kelechi Aro were smoked out of the hideout following series of investigations which started from Kano that fingered them as the arrowheads of the deadly gang that had been defrauding depositors of various banks through the ATM. They were arrested on the last floor of a two-storey building in Alaba Suru, a suburb of Lagos. Six laptop computers, the card reader machine, bank documents and several credit cards and ATM cards were recovered from the suspects. Also recovered was a Gulf 3 saloon car.

“According to investigation, all the fraudsters needed to have access to the account of any bank depositor are the victim’s ATM and PIN numbers. Once they have that information, they would use card reader machine to print the numbers on any ATM card. Once that is done, they can use the card to withdraw money from the victim’s account without even knowing the account holder’s name.

“It is believed that members of this syndicate belong to the group of fraudsters that had been sending scam mails and text messages in the name of Interswitch Nigeria, urging unwary debit card holders to upgrade their ATM cards by filling online forms which require them to disclose their pin numbers. Those who fell prey to this scam lost millions of naira to the fraudsters.

“During interrogation, Chris Okeke the ring leader whose father’s house was being used for the fraudulent group’s activities disclosed that the house belongs to his ailing father who had relocated to his village in Anambra State due to ill health and that all the items found in the house belonged to his accomplices. He further revealed that one Darlington, who is at large, is the owner of the machine and the Gulf car recovered from him. He claimed that he was always staying in his room while Darlington and other members of the syndicate perpetrated the fraud in the living room.

“But 34-year-old Nicholas Egboh debunked the claims of his co-traveller in crime. According to Nicholas, Chris knew much about the scam and benefited from the proceeds of the crime. Nicholas said he used to see different people coming to the house everyday and had warned Chris on several occasions that he would run into trouble. He disclosed that he was a trader in Onitsha, Anambra State and that six months ago, his business collapsed and he relocated to Lagos in preparation for a trip to Egypt. He denied being a member of the syndicate, but one of the Laptop computers recovered in the house belonged to him.

“The third suspect, Kelechi Aro who wears a dreadlock also exonerated himself from the crime saying that he was a musician and a labourer. He said he relocated to the house of fraud two years ago from Ajegunle, another Lagos suburb. But it was obvious that he was being economical with the truth as operatives caught him sending scam messages with one of the laptop computers when he was arrested.

“Interestingly, the report that triggered the arrest of members of this deadly syndicate originated from Kaduna. A resident of that city had lodged a complaint with the Commission’s office in Kano to the effect that some fraudsters had pulled out some money from his account in one of the banks in the city. Investigators were able to trace the fraudsters to Surulere, Lagos through the driver’s licence used by one of them to withdraw money from the said account. Consequently, Remilekun Ojolowo and Sherifat Aderomu, who had been admitted to administrative bail, were arrested. Upon interrogation they claimed to belong to a network of syndicates that specialise in ATM fraud and led operatives to the den of the fraudsters where the startling recoveries were made.

“This latest discovery followed a similar one in Port-Harcourt, Rivers state where EFCC operatives unveiled a set of bank officials who duplicate customers’ ATM cards to defraud them of millions of naira.

“In the case of the Port Harcourt syndicate, one Ms. Cassandra Olaleye, a banker and her accomplice, Regal Horsefall were arrested by EFCC operatives following the discovery of the ATM fraud. The two suspects had been working as partners since June 2008, withdrawing funds totaling about N12 million from a customer’s account, an account managed by Cassandra. Their journey to the EFCC net started when the customer gave a cheque of N4 million to someone and was told his account was already in the red. He went to the bank to verify and from his account statement, it was discovered that a lot of ATM withdrawals had been done on the account. The customer who was surprised as he had never used his ATM card before protested and the matter was reported to the EFCC Port Harcourt Zonal office.

“After a careful study of the bank statement, operatives discovered that the money was drawn from an ATM machine located in the premises of an hotel in Port Harcourt almost on a daily basis since July 2008. They visited the ATM machine to see if it has a camera, but there was none. Luckily for them, the hotel has a CCTV surveillance camera. The footages were rolled back and it was discovered that for almost two months, a particular red Toyota Corolla car brings a lady to the machine to make withdrawals. The number plate of the car was copied and a search for the vehicle began. After about two weeks of searching, the vehicle was discovered in a compound in Elekahia Housing Estate, in Rumuomasi area of Port Harcourt.

“Operatives went in and a lady (Regal Horsefall) who they suspected was the culprit from the CCTV footages was sighted. She was approached for questioning, but she said she had never gone to the hotel for any withdrawal. They asked her about the car and she said it belongs to her brother. The operatives then arrested her. She was taken to the EFCC office where a call was put through to the supposed brother who came immediately and said she was not his sister but his girlfriend who goes to the ATM machine located in the hotel. He took the oeratives to her house where she agreed that she made the withdrawals. She was arrested and during interrogation, she said it was Cassandra Olaleye that gave her the ATM card to do the withdrawals for her. It was discovered later that the ATM point in the hotel premises was chosen because the culprits noticed it didn’t have a camera on it.

“Operatives contacted Cassandra Olaleye who they discovered had moved from Port Harcourt to Calabar where she currently works with a different bank. She was subsequently arrested and brought to the EFCC Port Harcourt office where she initially denied all the allegations.

“To solve the riddle, the two of them were brought together because Regal insisted that Cassandra gave her the card.

“With the face-off, what could solve the riddle was a deeper investigation. When eventually Cassandra was confronted with the heap of evidences already gathered by operatives in the course of investigation, she admitted all the allegations”.


http://www.tribune.com.ng/16082009/features2.html

i always knew that there was a machine that could duplicate an atm card.Kudos to the efcc for this one, but trust nigerians this information will lead to more people trying this method and more improved ones.

na wa o, thank God they were caught, i pray more of them are discovered. women are in the front in every kind of societal evil now. they have always clamoured to be given a chance, now they have the opportunity and see how they have started.

Thank God for the gurus technological know-how ooooooo. We are improving man!

some nice detective ise cool 3 gbosa 4 EFCC gbosa gbosa gbosa

Its good, investigative work by the EFCC.

I just hope some people will stop envying supposedly successful bankers and *business people* and hoping to be like them.

Its increasingly obvious that its all a lie and that most of them, normally would not be able to afford their lifestyle without some kind of stealing and fraud.

From the Top-dogs to the foot-solidiers.

Well, the truth is if the developed countries like the u.k,u.s.a et al can still fall victim to this crime how much more Nigeria.Apart from this atm fraud what about the numerous bankers switching your money to their friends account, fail to post your money if you pay into your account, especially illiterate traders who do not receive bank statements and have no idea what thier balances are.
I know someone who works in a bank in lagos, that cannot write a complete sentence without grammatically murdering English language.Don't ask me how he got the job!(connection) but let me tell you what he is good at, assisting yahoo boys get cash out,aiding fake trasfers etc,, I think its high time the banks began to purge out ludicrous elements of this sector, a good verification technic to collate the past addresses,qualifications of aspiring bankers, proper training,effective monitoring of daily activitites of these workers.
I ask why I cannot go back home and work to provide my competence in this field, I conclude by saying I would be purged out as trying to bring sanity.One man would only go a few weeks if the sector's chairmen and women do not stand up to these ill!

Ha, at last we can heave a sigh of relief, I nearlly fell to their antics. Kudos to EFCC on this one, keep it up

If only Farida Waziri and her EFCC will pay a fraction of the time and money spent chasing petty thieves to going after councillors, commissioners, Governors (retired and serving) ministers, reps and senators and other public servants, Nigeria will be better for it.

These are soft convenient targets  of the EFCC that are inconsequential to the big picture. Not impressed.

sweetpain:

If only Farida Waziri and her EFCC will pay a fraction of the time and money spent chasing petty thieves to going after councillors, commissioners, Governors (retired and serving) ministers, reps and senators and other public servants, Nigeria will be better for it.

These are soft convenient targets  of the EFCC that are inconsequential to the big picture. Not impressed.

Interesting, so the EFCC should not go after these kind of criminals because they are not public office holders.

Simples!

sweetpain:

If only Farida Waziri and her EFCC will pay a fraction of the time and money spent chasing petty thieves to going after councillors, commissioners, Governors (retired and serving) ministers, reps and senators and other public servants, Nigeria will be better for it.

These are soft convenient targets of the EFCC that are inconsequential to the big picture. Not impressed.

Pretty thieves? Wake up

Me think kudos should be given to EFCC they've started well and they will continue to do more

Battle not yet over!!!

I knew from day one that it is the bankers that behind all these ATM fraud.I think the bank should try all they can to flush out the bad eggs among them and also i'm surprised that the bank was not named in the publication.at least that would have made us know the banks that are volatile to the fraud.EFCC qudos to you this time around.at least waziri have made an achievement this time after almost three years of her leadership.

I can't believe this. Cassandra was my account officer in Standard Chartered just 9 months ago! Very nice and courteous lady. I need to go double check my account statement ASAP!!!

Belewu:

I can't believe this. Cassandra was my account officer in Standard Chartered just 9 months ago! Very nice and courteous lady. I need to go double check my account statement ASAP!!!

Are you sure its the same Cassandra?

This is a welcome news, an improvement on the image of the EFCC. It demonstrates that they are not completely useless afterall, and that they can actually combat fraud if they put their minds to it.

God bless these set of detective.

always said that bankers are suspect of all these things happening

since the banking sector is full of unprofessional then what do we expect.

I wonder how exactly this bust has made things safer for Nigerians. there will always be card readers since the days of DSTV card cloning. there will always be clonign machines since the days of Multilinks cloned phones, it is not the technology we should be worried about, but our policy and precautions we take when we decide to use ATM Cards.


1: Stay away from ATMs located in Restaurants and Petrol Stations since workers can connive with security to stay late and bug the ATM machines with card readers before users come in the mornings to withdraw
2: Stay away from ATMs located near busy bustops e.g Cele Bus Stop Aguda Surulere, or ones situated within Hotels
3: Always watch your back when withdrawing and be quick about it. try not to do this at night when there is no one around.
4: lastly, never reveal your PIN to anyone via email, SMS or word of mouth, do not write it down either

Na wa-o

Atm fraudsters?ha,what a laugh!political thieves walk our streets with bulging suitcases of stolen public fund,and EFCC is after school children?.Give us a break,EFCC!

well i have never used an atm card once. even though i have it, i do nt like using i

This story would have more weight to it if the EFCC declared attempted and stolen amount by this syndicate. These guys are petty thieves, there is nothing sophisticated about their operation.  With little research anyone can gain access to card encoders.  EFCC needs to focus on making big arrest and leave these petty crimes for SFU {special Fraud Unit } of the Police Department.

While I commend the EFCC for this achievement  (atm fraud was getting out of control and eroding confidence in the technology), I would like to see a concerted effort in investigating and prosecuting more serious cases of fraud, particulary amongst politicians.

Activities of currupt politicians presents a SYSTEMIC RISK to our nation and must be the # 1 priority if they are to be taken seriously

We are still talking about "interswitch scam" here. The latest in town is the fifa 2010 thing, the scam says you won =N=1,000,000! This huge sum is too large for you to ignore, I have seen guys who stupidly fall for this crap, what game did you play to have brought this huge winning? The sms directs you to some fifa2010 or so website where you are then required to submite you ATM details (with PIN). At this stage if you are not stupid, you should just close that page!

sweetpain:

If only Farida Waziri and her EFCC will pay a fraction of the time and money spent chasing petty thieves to going after councillors, commissioners, Governors (retired and serving) ministers, reps and senators and other public servants, Nigeria will be better for it.

These are soft convenient targets of the EFCC that are inconsequential to the big picture. Not impressed.

so whats your point? if u have been a direct victim you might not be so dismissive

naijamark:

We are still talking about "interswitch scam" here. The latest in town is the fifa 2010 thing, the scam says you won =N=1,000,000! This huge sum is too large for you to ignore, I have seen guys who stupidly fall for this crap, what game did you play to have brought this huge winning? The sms directs you to some fifa2010 or so website where you are then required to submite you ATM details (with PIN). At this stage if you are not stupid, you should just close that page!

better still forward the scammers' mobile number to EFCC'S email address:

info@efccnigeria.org

that way u would have done your bit about making sure crime does not pay.

This seems the only seeming progress made by the EFCC if its any progress at all. I urge them to go after majoy thieves with 100 times the  same efeervescence they pursue  atm scammers et al

Enough of Efcc Shit this is all we get in this corrupt country

smooooooth:

women are in the front in every kind of societal evil now. they have always clamoured to be given a chance, now they have the opportunity and see how they have started.

My friend shut up there. What about all the other men involved? How come it's only the woman you saw? Yeye guy.
Gosh, I so hate finger-pointers. Hypocrism

thank God 4 EFCC.Them 3 much

I stopped using ATM for close to a year now since it was making me to spend recklessly.