Police nab 2 for using stolen SIM cards to defraud

The Enugu State Police Command has arrested two persons using stolen SIM cards to defraud the owners in the state.

The Command’s Spokesman, SP Ebere Amaraizu, said in a statement on Saturday that the two suspects were arrested on May 18.

Amaraizu said that the Police recovered 30 cards of different telecommunication networks, belonging to various victims yet to be identified.

He stated that the suspects were arrested by police operative of the Central Police Station, Enugu, who acted on a coordinated intelligence information.

According to the statement, the suspects specialise in using victims’ SIM cards to access their bank details and withdraw their money.

The suspects were identified as Abuchi Ogbu, 20 and Christian Mba, 21.

Ogbu is from Ndiagu Akpugo in Nkanu West Local Government Area, resides at 17 New Jerusalem Coal Camp, Enugu, while Mba is from Amechi Idodo in Nkanu East Local Government Area and residing at 23 New Jerusalem Coal Camp, Enugu.

The suspects confessed to operate in three groups; one specialises in stealing phones, takes the SIM cards to Mba, who is a cybercafé operator, to access the BVN and other bank details of their victims and hack into their accounts.

The other group, headed by Ogbu is to generate the PIN code of victims through the information gathered on the SIM cards.

The codes are passed to the person, who then accesses the victims’ accounts and withdraws the money.

“They have wreaked havoc on many victims, including the latest victim who they swindled N250,000,’’ Amaraizu said.

He said that one of the suspects, Ogbu, pleaded for forgiveness and blamed the situation on peer group influence.

“The command advises members of the public to be security conscious and should ensure that their electronic cards are kept safe,’’ he added.