Two men dupe retired employee of Rs 34,000 at Nagpur ATM by swapping his card

Nagpur: Two crafty youths cheated a retired employee of Rs 34,000 at an ATM by swapping his card after pretending to help him, and then fled. The incident took place at the Bank of Baroda ATM in Medical Chowk.

According to police, Dilip Bandane (64), a resident of Chandan Nagar, went to the ATM on the afternoon of November 1 to withdraw cash. He inserted his card into the machine, but the cash did not come out. Rs 34,000 was stuck in the machine, he thought.

Two youths aged 30 to 35 then arrived. In front of Bandane, they pretended to withdraw money using different ATM cards. They then said they too could not get cash from the machine. They assured Bandane that the money stuck in the machine would be credited back to his account on its own after some time.

Meanwhile, the accused took Bandane's ATM card in their hands as well and pretended to withdraw money with it. They then swapped his card, handed him another one and left.

Some time later, Bandane received a message on his mobile phone saying Rs 34,000 had been withdrawn from his account. Only then did he realise he had been cheated. He lodged a complaint at Imamwada police station. Police have registered a case of cheating and begun searching for the accused.

Strip jammed in ATM slot is a known trick

Obstructing the withdrawal process by jamming a strip in an ATM machine and cheating customers in the meantime is not a new method. Similar incidents have come to light earlier. Imamwada police are going through CCTV footage from the ATM premises to trace the accused.