The suspects had been arrested on Saturday at 3 a.m. in Curug and Lebak, Banten, after their actions had came to the police's attention following reports from victims in October, the police said on Tuesday.

South Tangerang Police crime unit head Alexander Yurikho said the suspects were part of a gang of four conducting fraudulent operations in the city. 

"We've arrested two of them and we're still working on catching the other two," he said, as quoted by tempo.co. 

Alexander said that, according to the suspects' statements, they would prey on women aged 25 to 30 years old who were going to withdraw money from the ATM. They would then engage their victims in a conversation. 

"The suspects would say that they could heal the victims from ailments," he said, adding that they would use a golden pin and other items said to have healing properties.

The modus operandi involved surreptitiously swapping ATM cards while the victims were distracted and emptying out the accounts, Alexander claimed, without elaborating.

Police confiscated 11 ATM cards, some needles and pins, a ruby gemstone, four cell phones, five pairs of shoes and CCTV footage as evidence. (ris)

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