BANGALORE, October 18: The Vijayanagar police arrested a 35-year-old man who had amassed wealth by duping many ATM users on the pretext of helping them, and recovered Rs. 3.1 lakh from the accused.
The accused T.K. Aravind, who was employed as a syce in Bangalore Turf Club, would target elderly persons, who would go to ATMs to draw money. He would offer to help them enter the ATM pin and draw cash for them and during the process would memorise the pin numbers, the police said.
“When the ATM customer would count the cash that had been withdrawn, Aravind would swipe the card again quickly and return it to the owner. Using the pin that he had memorised, he would enter it and withdraw large amounts of money,” the Vijayanagar police said.
The police received at least ten such complaints from victims following which a special team was formed to trace the accused.
Upon receiving the numerous complaints, the police had made the complainants observe the footage captured in the CCTV cameras installed inside the ATM kiosk and identify the accused. The police then kept a lookout near the same ATM counters where some of the complainants had been duped, and were able to nab the accused on Tuesday.
Interrogation revealed that Aravind, hailing from Mysore, had been cheating many people in such a manner since one year. He had indulged in the fraud as he wanted to lead a lavish lifestyle similar to those who came to watch horse races. The police have seized Rs. 3.1 lakh and have recovered one SBI ATM card so far. However, they are yet to investigate whether the accused had used the ATM pins for online transactions and are probing further.
