Trickster runs out of luck, nabbed in Madurai

Madurai Rural District Police have nabbed a trickster involved in swindling money from the accounts of gullible people by swapping debit cards at ATMs in different districts.

Police identified him as M. Dilliganesh, 28, of Kanchipuram district. He is involved in at least 18 cases, where he withdrew money ranging from ₹13,000 to ₹60,000 from ATMs using swapped debit cards.

He was caught when he made a similar attempt with an aged person at an ATM in Tirumangalam on Wednesday. However, when he tried to withdraw money from another ATM, the victim who accidentally noticed him raised an alarm and he was caught.

“He ran out of luck when the alert victim raised an alarm,” Superintendent of Police V. Baskaran said.

Dilliganesh would stand in front of an ATM and wait for a prey, mostly aged people. He would enter the ATM along with them and peep into the keyboard as they entered their secret PIN.

“Suddenly, he would create a confusion in the ATM kiosk and pull out the debit card of the victim and swap it with another and disappear,” the SP said.

Since he would be aware of the PIN, he would use the same debit card and withdraw money at another ATM.

The SP said the trickster lavishly spent the money and always moved from one district to another to escape from the police.

He was sent to judicial custody.