FOLLOWING a card-cloning incident in Malvern, a statement issued by the police station reminds residents to always be cautious when using ATMs.
W/O Radhika Marimuthu said a woman was drawing funds from an ATM in the area when her card jammed in the machine. “A well-dressed man, who had utilised the machine prior to her, told her that it was faulty.
When the woman tried to retrieve her card, she could not do so as the card had disappeared into the ATM,” said Marimuthu. The woman later started getting bank notifications on her phone of money being drawn and purchases being made. She then notified the bank, which placed her card on hold.”
Residents, especially the elderly, are urged to be aware and vigilant of suspicious people in the vicinity of ATMs when making transactions. The press statement from the police further urged people to not to accept assistance from anyone when making a transaction.
“If assistance is needed, people are urged to contact staff from the banking institution. When cash is withdrawn from garages or bakery ATMs, people are urged to display extra caution, and if confronted with suspicious people, rather delay making your transaction or move on to a safer environment,” Marimuthu warned.
Pensioners and the elderly are urged not to hand their banking cards to any one who offers help but rather to seek assistance from authentic banking officials from within the banking institution. Criminals position skimming devices or pin-size cameras on the bank machine to get card details, and if your card is not returned, check the ATM slot for a strip of x-ray material which is glued inside with the intention of holding and indicating that your card is in.
“Remember, it takes a fraudster a few seconds to swipe your card through a skimming device in order to reproduce a cloned version of your card. Always make sure that you are present to monitor the transaction at the point of sale and never allow the teller to leave with your card,” she added.
