Robbers now target ATM customers on Friday night

By OKOSUN DENNIS

A new twist has been introduced by armed robbers in their desperate bid to snatch Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards from bank customers.

Investigation revealed that robbers now visit ATM centres on Friday evenings and lay in wait for customers whom they forcefully relieve of their ATM cards and compel them to obtain the PIN codes of customers.

One of their modus operandi is to approach ATM users with friendly smile while the person is making withdrawal, they would walk closer and display their guns while at the same time pointing to their colleagues around in case the person attempts to play pranks, scream or want to run away.

It was learnt that immediately they collect the ATM cards and the PIN number, they will confirm the PIN number to ensure that it was not fake before dashing away.

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It was gathered that they strike on Friday night with the intention of withdrawing the mandatory bank limit of N150,000 daily between that Friday, Saturday and Sunday before the person would be able to block it as most customers do not usually have bank hot lines to enable them deactivate the card.

Commenting on the scenario, a bank customer whose view was sought but preferred to speak anonymously said “the robbers target Friday evenings because they know majority of Nigerians don’t have the phone numbers of their Account Officers or any staff in their bank and as such can’t call to have their ATM card blocked by the bank until 8am Monday morning when banks would have resumed.”

It was further gathered that a woman was robbed recently as her three ATM cards were forcefully taken from her and the criminals withdrew N680,000 between Friday and Sunday night from her three accounts via ATM.