A gang of three alleged bank cards thieves ran out of luck on Friday when they were caught in the act of withdrawing money after allegedly using cunning tactics to steal an elderly man’s bank card at an ATM.

Information gathered indicate that the unsuspecting target was at the ATM at the Lakedene Shell petrol station in Benoni, where the gang approached him and stole his card.

The suspects were seen getting in a red car and drove towards Boksburg, unbeknownst to them that security officers were on their track – after the victim alerted them of what just happened.

Instead of stopping the suspects’ vehicle as it was driving, the quick-thinking officers decided to take an investigative approach to capture the suspects in the act of withdrawing money from the victim’s account.

They stayed on the suspects’ tail until they reached The Squares Shopping Centre on Rietfontein Road, Boksburg, where one of the suspects was reportedly seen alighting from the car and went to the ATM, to apparently drain the victim’s account.

It was at that point that the officers swooped on the suspects and managed to catch two of them. The third one managed to run away, and it is still unclear if money had been withdrawn from the victim’s card.

They were found with about eight other bank cards that were seized along with their cellphones.

Officers from various local police units, security companies and the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department also arrived at the scene in Boksburg.

The Boksburg North SAPS spokesperson, Sergeant Justice Ramaube, confirmed the incident and added that the arrested suspects would be charged accordingly, and further investigation would also be initiated to check if the suspects are not linked to other reported bank cards related incidents.

A manhunt has been launched to track down the third suspect.

The officers, who asked not to be identified, said it had crossed their minds that the suspects might immediately go to another ATM to help themselves to all they could get out of the victim’s bank account, hence, they decided to do the undercover work.

“The plan was to ensure that we get all the evidence and recover the victim’s card. The elderly man was clearly shocked as the guys made off with his bank card, leaving him desperate at the garage.”

Modus operandi

Ramaube said it is believed that in cases like this, criminals steal bank cards by manner of swapping them from unsuspecting bank card holders at ATMs.

Meanwhile the Banking Association of South Africa warned that the most prevalent modus operandi of perpetrators for these types of crimes involves the use of a card skimming device to fraudulently copy the bank card holder’s bank details, which is why they can get access to people’s bank account after stealing the card.

The association explained that criminals need a combination of the magnetic-strip information at the back of the card and the PIN to carry out their bank card fraud.

This can be handheld or ATM-mounted skimming, since the majority of counterfeit debit card fraud can be directly linked to card skimming.

The association warned bank card holders to never let their card leave their sight when making transactions, and make sure to inspect the ATM for any foreign objects on the mouth of the card slot to ensure that your card is not skimmed.

Customers should also make it a practice to cover the PIN pad when keying in their card PIN.