ATM fraud rife in the East
In some incidents, funds of more than R40 000 were withdrawn within minutes.
The Brooklyn police are investigating a number of fraud cases that occurred at ATMs at various shopping centres in the east of Pretoria.
Police spokesperson Captain Colette Weilbach said six cases have been reported at Water Glen shopping centre already this year.
“The victims who are mostly from other countries or elderly described that their bank cards were retained or captured by the ATM they used,” she said.
ALSO READ: Man sought after forgetting cash at east ATM
“Strangers pretended to assist them but apparently also could not manage to retrieve the cards.”
She said all the victims immediately tried to stop their cards with their financial institutions only to discover that withdrawals had already been made.
In some of the incidents, funds for more than R40 000 were withdrawn within minutes of the victim losing the card.
“ATM skimming is when criminals place a device on the face of an ATM,” she said.
“The device appears to be a part of the machine.”
Weilbach said criminals in teams often pretended to be ATM users standing in the queue.
“One to distract the ATM user while the other steals the card or money,” she said.
ALSO READ: ‘Dirty’ drug addicts refused treatment at city clinics
“Sometimes there will be ‘out of order’ notices on the ATMs which will force the user to use one specific ATM that was tampered with.”
She warned that card skimming was not only restricted to one shopping centre.
“These crimes are committed just as much during the day than night,” she said.
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
