The Enugu State police command has arrested a member of a fraud syndicate that specializes in stealing bank customers’ Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards through swapping.

The suspect, identified as Chukwudi Chukwu, was nabbed with nine stolen ATM cards.

The 25-year-old suspect was said to have been arrested by police operatives attached to New Haven Police Division after they received a distress call that the suspect was about to be lynched by an angry mob.

It was gathered that the syndicate which the man belongs, swaps unsuspecting bank customers’ ATM cards by offering to assist them to process their transaction on the machines.

They will thereafter, use the ATM cards to empty their victims’ accounts.

However, luck was said to have run out on Chukwu when he was discovered to have swapped a woman’s ATM card after offering to assist the woman in processing her transaction on the ATM with the intention of defrauding her.

The woman was said to have raised the alarm after discovering the act and the alarm made a mob to gather and descend on him, before he was rescued from being lynched by policemen.

According to a statement by the state police command through its Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, the suspect confessed that the syndicate specialises in swapping bank customers’ ATM cards with non-functional one.

“Police operatives attached to New Haven Police Division of Enugu State Command have arrested one Chukwudi Chukwu, aged 25 years, at Chime Avenue, Enugu,” the police statement said.

“His arrest led to the recovery of a tricycle with registration number: ENU 677 WW he and his gang members used for operation and nine ATM cards of different banks were found on him.

“The man, whose arrest was due to a swift response to a distress call from a citizen and his rescue from an angry mob by the operatives, was said to have swapped a woman’s ATM card after offering to assist her in carrying out transaction on the bank’s ATM, with the intention of defrauding her.

“During interrogation, he confessed to the crime as well as being a member of the syndicate that specialised in swapping ATM cards of their victims at banks’ ATMs with non-functional cards, which they used to fraudulently obtain funds from their accounts.

“Meanwhile, intense discreet investigation is ongoing to arrest other members of the syndicate, including those who escaped and abandoned the tricycle on the said day, while the man will be prosecuted as soon as investigations are completed.”