Bengaluru: Man held for cheating elderly on pretext of helping them withdraw cash at ATMs

From January 1 to 19, the accused withdrew around Rs 16,10,581.44 from a victim's card

A 48-year-old autorickshaw driver was arrested by North-East Crime CEN police recently as he was allegedly involved in cheating aged persons on the pretext of helping them to withdraw cash from ATMs.

He used to exchange the debit card with another card and then withdraw their money.

The arrested Shashi Kumar was a resident of Vidyaranyapura. According to police, Kumar had purchased a lot of gold jewels for his three daughters and his wife from the money he made illegally by cheating gullible aged persons.

One of his recent victims was Muniyappa S, 68, from Ananthapura near Yelahanka. Muniyappa had been to a Karnataka Bank ATM at Ananthapura to withdraw money around 9 am on January 1. Kumar, who was loitering near the kiosk, pretended to help Muniyappa to withdraw money and got his PIN number. He returned the debit card saying that money was not coming from the machine due to some technical problem. While returning, Kumar exchanged Muniyappa’s card with a similar card.

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From January 1 to 19, Kumar withdrew around Rs 16,10,581.44 from Muniyappa’s card. Muniyappa went to withdraw some money from the ATM on January 19 and learned that there was no balance in his account. He inquired with the bank staff about the transactions. Then, Muniyappa realised that Kumar had exchanged his debit card and used it to withdraw the money.

He then filed a complaint with the police. Kumar was arrested and during the interrogation, the police found that he was living with his wife and three daughters. He had brought them gold jewels and was living a lavish life with the money he earned fraudulently.

Kumar used to hang around near ATM kiosks in his autorickshaw during the early hours and at night. He targeted aged people who do not know how to use ATMs and cheated them. With his arrest, the police have detected six cases registered at North-East CEN Crime police station, Vidyaranyapura, Hulimavu, Yelahanka, Upparpet and R T Nagar. But, the police have not recovered any valuables from Kumar yet.