The Anambra State Police command has warned the citizens and residents of the state to be wary of fraudsters and one chance syndicates who have devised new methods of dispossessing innocent citizens of their hard earned money and other belongings.
A statement in Awka the State Capital on Tuesday by the Police Public Relations Officer of the command, SP Haruna Mohammed said that those syndicates migrate from one place to another with same method of stealing or defrauding their unsuspecting victims.
According to the statement, “Just recently in Awka, a lady whose video went viral on the social media was allegedly lured by some hoodlums inside “jeep” under false pretense that they were looking for a place and lost bearing. As soon as the lady entered the car, she allegedly loss her senses only to realise later when she regained consciousness that all her money and other valuables were carted away by the syndicate.
“Further credible information also revealed that another syndicate have devised a method of assessing their victim’s bank accounts through stolen phones or lost ATM cards, they do this in connivance with some unscrupulous bank officials.”
The statement recalled that the command issued similar alert in September 2018 where fraudsters disguised as CBN staff in charge of all bank transactions which according to it was nonexistent and place phone calls to their targets whose bio data was downloaded either through Facebook or other social media platforms and then demanded from them their date of birth or biometric verification numbers (BVN) in order to gain access to their targets account numbers and subsequently transfer all the money into another account through electronic means.
“Such unwholesome practices are usually perpetrated by persons who instead of channeling their talents through legitimate means of attaining better living conditions in conformity with acceptable norms in the society resorts to criminal acts in order to get rich quickly and by all means”, it added.
The statement therefore enjoined the public to be wary of this new pattern of crime and immediately report suspicious persons or stolen phones/ATM cards to the nearest Police stations and their individual banks to deactivate their accounts.
“The public should also refrain from availing their personal information particularly date of birth or biometric identification numbers (BVN) to unauthorized persons in order not to fall victims of these syndicates”, the statement added.
Photo: The Commissioner of Police, Anambra State, CP John Abang.
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