The Samata Nagar police on Tuesday, May 14, said it has arrested a Nigerian couple who allegedly steal data and pin numbers of customers at ATM’s in different locations by inserting a skimmer and micro cameras in order to create clone cards of the data.
The police identified the duo as Isaiah Ogunleye Seyi, 34, and Rosy Colin Warri, 37, both residing in Nalasopara in the Palghar district, may be living illegally in India as their passports couldn’t be found at their house.
The incident came to light when the YES bank branch at the Chennai head office received a number of complaints about the ‘Yes bank’ ATM centre that is situated in Thakur village in Kandivali East. When the bank official checked the skimmer machine, a micro camera was found installed in the ATM.
A complaint was immediately filed at the local Samta Nagar police station by the bank authorities.
“They had placed a skimmer and micro-camera at a Yes Bank ATM kiosk in Thakur village. After a customer approached police claiming that he had seen a skimmer attached to the ATM, we started investigations,” said senior inspector Raju Kasbe, Samta Nagar police station.
They began to lay a trap and were waiting for hours outside the ATM centre. On May 12, 2019, they achieved success as they managed to catch the suspect, who returned back in order to take the skimmer machine and the micro camera.
The police formed four teams and posted them outside the ATM kiosk. Two cops, dressed as guards, took charge of the kiosk and stood at the door, while the others stayed not too far in civvies. Around 2am on Sunday, Seyi walked into the kiosk. Minutes later, he stepped out looking confused and as the police closed in, he tried to flee in an auto. When the police followed him, he jumped out of the auto and tried to flee on foot. Cops nabbed him after a kilometre-long chase.
“We chased him down after he had run over a kilometre” he added.
Seyi told the police about the involvement of his girlfriend, who too was arrested.
During their interrogation, it was revealed that Seyi came to Mumbai on a business visa while Colin had visited the city in order to undergo some treatments.
The couple was booked under provisions of IPC for cheating, besides the Information Technology Act. The police said the couple initially refused to cooperate.
“They said they could not speak Hindi or English. We even got an interpretor,” said senior inspector Kasbe. The duo also pretended they had nothing to do with the crime.
The police have recovered two mobiles, three inoperative debit cards for cloning, a skimmer and a microcam. Bank officials told the police that data of at least 25 customers had been stolen.
“We are probing if the couple has been booked for similar crimes in the past. They have been sent to police custody till May 17.” said the official.
It was under the guidance of Zone XII DCP, Vinay Kumar Rathod, Senior Inspector Raju Kasbe of Samta Nagar police station and detection officers API Shirdram Maitre, API Nitin Andhade, Sachin Dhobi Shivalkar, Rohan Gaikwad, Gautam Torane, Sanjay More, Vijay Suryawansi, Abhimanyu Gaya, Rajendra Dalve who also played a key role in getting hold of the accused and exposing them.
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