A local resident is warning the community to be aware of an ATM scam.
He recently got caught by it at an ATM on the corner of Webber Road and Power Street, and wants other people to be extra careful when using these machines.
He also believes that other victims have been caught at the same ATM.
“It all started when I noticed that my bank was now offering a cardless service at its ATMs,” he said.
“The criminals have somehow found a way to jam the ATM to show the cardless interface, they then set up the scene at the ATM.
“As you approach the ATM it looks like there is a queue, but I found out the ‘queue’ most likely consists of the same gang.
“There is always one guy using (or pretending to use) the ATM.
“He might take longer, checking if there’s a potential victim joining the queue.
“If there is a fake queue, they usually act as if they are in no hurry and may prompt you to go ahead and use the ATM.
“When the guy in the ATM box leaves and it’s your turn, he intentionally leave his slip hanging out of the ATM (the fake excuse to distract the victim).
“You get in and try to slot your card, but because the whole thing is jammed on cardless service, the card won’t slot.
“That’s when the guy immediately comes back and asks for the intentionally forgotten transaction slip.
“At this point you won’t suspect anything and you would naturally hand him the slip.
“He gains your trust and then tells you that the ATM is working and attempts to force your card for you.
“All this happens fast.”
The resident added that the man will tell you that the cardless service is a new system, presses a digit and pretends to force your card in.
“At this point you are no longer in possession of your card and because the criminal is two steps ahead of you, he’s already left you to do your transaction.
“The ATM jumps to an ‘enter voucher number’ interface, which doesn’t help you, and while you struggle to retrieve your card (which is not even in the ATM) the guys and the queue are gone. “A few minutes and your money is cleaned out from a different ATM; in my case it was withdrawn at Lakeview in Germiston,” he said.
The resident managed to phone his bank and stop transactions, but he was already too late to prevent them from getting money.
“They even printed a statement from my account,” he said.
The resident told the GCN that he then had a second encounter with the thieves.
“The trick was the same.
“I was second in the queue, then quickly realised the only genuine users were the guy in front of me and myself.
“The one behind me was fake, as he hung around to see no one was suspecting anything.
His job is to waste the victim’s time.
“He pretends to be concerned and even approaches the struggling victim, asking if there’s anything wrong with the ATM.
“This gives the thieves enough time to clone the card or whatever they do.”
The resident told the GCN that on that particular day he managed to prompt the victim to call the fraud line and then quickly disappeared from the scene, as he wouldn’t have known who could have heard him alerting the victim.
“I had wanted to take a picture on my mobile but it would’ve been obvious and would’ve got me in trouble,” he said.
“It’s a pity.
“I did come back about 10 minutes later. The victim had left and I thought I had better alert the staff at the petrol station.
“They didn’t seem to know anything about the matter.
“It is worrying because it doesn’t look like anything is being done about the problem and these guys seem to hang out there on a regular basis.”
On the resident’s last observation of the ATM he noticed a man leaving the machine and joining up with another, who came out of the shop.
“They got into a white car with other occupants,” he said.
“There was a woman left at the ATM, obviously struggling to get her card back, as it happened to me.”
The resident has reported the matter and the ATM to the bank concerned, and is waiting to see what action the bank will take regarding the matter.
