Con man swaps card, senior citizen loses Rs 46k

Panaji: A senior citizen was cheated of Rs 46,000 by an unknown person on the pretext of helping the victim withdraw money from an ATM.
Uday Mashelkar, a Canca resident, attempted to withdraw money from an ATM in Mapusa on Saturday, but was unsuccessful after several tries. Two men standing in the queue to enter the ATM suggested that Mashelkar should instead head to another bank ATM nearby.
The victim said that as he was in urgent need of cash for grocery shopping, he decided to heed the advice.
When he went to the other ATM, he saw the two strangers at this ATM too. “I had entered the booth to withdraw money from the ATM. Suddenly, the man entered the booth and abruptly removed my card from the machine. He said I had not inserted my card properly. He wiped the ATM card on his sleeve and gave it to me and left. But my transaction did not go through, and I walked away. I realised much later the man had swapped my card,” said the senior citizen.
Police have already begun investigating the case and have recovered CCTV footage from the ATM to identify the accused.
“I was unable to withdraw money. When I went to the market, I got a call from an unknown number who said that my ATM card has been blocked and that I should visit the bank. When I made enquiries at the bank, the staffers immediately noticed that my card has been exchanged. The staffer checked my bank account and saw that my entire amount of Rs 46,000 has been withdrawn. I began shivering and the bank staffers helped me go to the police station,” said the victim.