For many bank customers, the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is one of the best innovations ever introduced by the banking sector.
They see it as a convenient device as it puts cash in your pocket when you need it most.
For some, it saves them from having to carry cash around for daily needs. But as good as the device is, experience has shown that it has its dangers.
Reports from Port Harcourt , for instance, say that ATM card users have become the target of robbery attacks.
Victims’ accounts indicate that the criminals usually wait patiently by the ATM points and pretend to be engaged in one activity or the other.
In some cases, they behave as if they are also waiting to transact business on the machine.
“They hang around there doing nothing in particular; sometimes they pretend as if they
are not interested in what their victim may be doing.
“But the reality is that they are merely waiting for the next prey and could attack immediately they are sure you have withdrawn some money,’’ says Onyebuchi Mwanze, a victim.
Mwanze, a pipe welder in an oil firm, says it was drizzling on a Sunday morning in the Rivers capital city when he fell a victim.
He was taking his friend, Nkechi, on an outing and wanted some cash for the occasion.
Somewhere on the popular Ikwerre Road, the duo stopped to get some cash at an ATM spot.
Mwanze says that he saw three young men sitting under a tree opposite the machine spot but paid no attention to them.
“But immediately I withdrew some money and started heading to the car, two of them closed in on me and demanded for the money I had withdrawn.
“One of them ordered that I should give them the money, while the third immediately mounted a parked motorbike awaiting to convey his men with the loot.
“I was confused at first but was jolted to the reality when the fellow on the bike ordered his men to deal with me if I proved stubborn,’’ he recalls.
Mwanze says that he quickly surrendered the money and drove home.
Another victim, Miss Jennifer Okoro, a nurse, met the robbers when she stopped on Sani Abacha Road to get some money for weekend shopping at a supermarket in the GRA. But no sooner had she withdrawn N25,000 than some bystanders accosted her, insisting she should surrender the money.
“Out of fear, I quickly gave them everything,’’ she says, and adds that the two boys quickly got on a motorcycle and disappeared.
“It was an ugly experience, the first in my life. Before they left, they pushed me down and also snatched my bag,’’ she says.
Reports from the city indicate that many people have fallen prey to the activities of such people, popularly referred to as “ATM robbers’’.
To check their activities, Okoro suggests that ATM surroundings should be fortified.
“There should be adequate security in such vicinity; the banks should not allow a situation where people continuously lose their hard earned money.’’
An obviously agitated Okoro speaks further: “Of what use is such a device if one can
withdraw money only for it to be taken away by thieves?’’
A banker, Mr. Boma Amachree, says that crimes associated with the ATM are becoming a source of concern to financial institutions.
“It is shocking to see that even in a bank premises, criminals come pretending to be
doing one thing or the other but are found to be waiting for a potential prey.’’
He, however, rejects suggestions that ATMs be discarded.
“That is not a good idea. My advice is that users of ATM should be careful and watchful while making transactions.
“Essentially, what we get from these reports is that it is not everybody around the machine spot that is there to make any transaction,’’ he says.
The banker calls on security agencies to pay special attention to the ATM spots to check the incessant attacks.
Mr. Samuel Wobo, who says he was once attacked, decries a situation where thieves
continue to attack ATM customers with no response from law enforcement agents.
“People now visit banks and ATM spots with great fear as they are not sure what may
happen next. The risk is very high because you dare not say no to them (robbers),’’ Wobo says.
“It is painful to lose your hard earned money to a lazy criminal who is not ready to work.
“Government must take this issue seriously because some innocent people have lost their hands, while some were killed for resisting the thieves,’’ he says.
The Rivers Police Command, while reacting to the spate of attacks, promises that security will be tightened around the spots.
“We are aware of the pains members of the public go through in the hands of the criminals and we are already doing something,’’ Police Public Relations Officer Rita Abbey says.
She says that the command is alive to its responsibility of tackling crime and will never shirk it.
“Our men are everywhere; what we want from the public is the information that can give us a clue.
“We need to be informed of any suspicious act or movement. No one should be afraid
of doing so because we shall treat such information with the utmost confidentiality,’’ Abbey says.
While the police spokesperson and her colleagues strive to check the trend, analysts suggest that people hanging around the ATM spots be screened.
They reason that criminals will not make such spots their target once they know that law enforcement agents are on hand to verify their identity.
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