cashpoint machine theft warning.

[jasper]

A family member who lives in East Sussex was the victim of a thief on Friday. I had heard of this technique but had not known of anyone it had happened to till now, in fact I had wondered if these sort of tales were urban myths.
As she was carrying out the transaction someone tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to a ten pound note on the ground, saying she had dropped it, and as she bent to pick it up they did something swift to her card to get her details (not sure exactly what because she did still get her card to take away). She happened to mention the incident to her son who smelled a rat and insisted she contact her bank and sure enough,her withdrawal limit of £3000 had been withdrawn over a short space of time. Although she is insured against this kind of thing she is understandibly shaken. She is an elderly recently widowed lady.
I thought I would post this as a warning for us all to be extra vigilant in the Christmas shopping crowds.

Thanks Jasper.

I have heard of this too, I think they swipe the card though a handheld device and because they have watched the transaction that she was doing they proberly got her pin no. then they go make a card. It has recently been a problem in our area.

As this typr of thing is rife in my area I will not take out money from a hole in the wall but always go to the cash dispenser inside the bank. With the camera security etc inside thieves are deterred.

Thanks for the warning Jasper, I think alot of us get very complacent about getting money out of these machines and these stories do make you think about your security a bit more. Hope your relative is doing ok now.

Pamina, I sympathise. The same thing happened with my Halifax Switch card. The thief stole almost £500 before the card was stopped.

Someone recently tried to use my bank card on four separate occasions to buy cinema tickets and a 'large domestic item' costing more than £600. Luckily, the bank sniffed a rat and didn't pay out but I couldn't understand how it had happened. I hadn't lost my card, it was safe in my bag, and also I was living 8,000 miles from where they attempted to scam me. Earlier this year someone tried to claim twice on my car insurance, saying they'd been involved in two accidents in my car at a time and place I couldn't possibly have been. It's a bit spooky to think that someone has all this information about you.

Suedomin - have you used your card in a part of the world with no telephone land line infrastructure recently?

We had a similar experience following a holiday in Venezuala, where our card was used in a hotel which (we think) must have used a radio/mobile phone frequency to verify the details. According to DH (engineer) this makes it very much easier for a fraudster to pick up the card information.

Our bank managed to spot that transactions in Venezuala and Cambridge on the same day were unlikely, and stopped the card, but the lesson has been learned - you're better off using cash in a lot of situations!

That's interesting, Mines, and as we use our cards all the time in Indonesia it sounds very feasible that that is what happened.

An elderly lady in my area was also a victim of this kind of theft on the 13th dec. She had £2000 stolen that she had saved up for Christmas. Ohhhh...... it makes me mad!!!!!!

i would keep phoning them as under 100pd is still a lot of money.

I would back your phone call up with a letter and also ask that when they find you were not at fault that they repay you any interest owing and do not charge you should you incur an overdraft during their enquiries. I don't suppose you have a till receipt or anything that says you were elsewhere at the time of the withdrawal do you?

We once paid by switch for something and the machine added a 0 on the end even though the receipt was for the correct amount (£150 instead of £15). I only realised when I got a mini statement in the bank, told the staff immediately and fortunately they recouped the money within a couple of days. I wrote to the company that had taken the money and got something silly like a £5 voucher in return. I'm glad I spotted it though or I would have been £135 down.