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}.



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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://odili.net/news/source/2009/aug/15/613.html