CLONED for cash

POLOKWANE – A woman in the city lost all her savings when a quick trip to an ATM at a small shopping complex in the Fauna Park area last Thursday resulted in her becoming the victim of a card-skimming thief.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, explained to Review what happened.

“I just wanted to withdraw money at the ATM and then go home when I was approached by a man who told me that he was a police officer and that the machine gave a lot of problems. He said he could help me to get the cash I wanted because he knew the ‘trick’ of this ATM.”

She described the man as extremely dominating and said he forced himself closer to her as she tried to complete the transaction again.

“I told him that I would sort the problem out myself and that there was no need for him to assist me. He was much larger than me and when my card was rejected by the machine again, he took my card.”

She said she snatched her card back from the man, who was quite aggressive by this time. He turned away from her and walked away.

“Just a few minutes later, I started recei-ving SMS alerts from my bank of one transaction after the other.

“I tried to phone the stolen or lost card office but by the time they could stop the card, all the money I had saved had been withdrawn of my account.”

With the assistance of bank officials, the woman gave a statement so that the bank could conduct an investigation and she said she was also in the process of opening a criminal case with the police.

Footage taken from the ATM will be handed over to the police who are investigating other incidents in which other people were also victims of this type of crime.

Other footage from a nearby filling station, Mokone Shell, where there is also CCTV, shows the man withdrawing the woman’s money. This will also be handed over to the police.

Polokwane police spokesperson, WO Lesiba Ramoshaba, confirmed that police suspected a card skimming syndicate was active in the city.

In most of the cases reported to the Polokwane police, credit, debit, petrol and other cards were cloned or skimmed.

A manager from FNB, Sarel Jooste, said the bank recognised that card skimming has become a cause for concern to all clients.

“We urge the public to be very vigilant and take precautionary measures when they carry out ATM transactions,” he advised.

According to Pierre Oberholzer from the Absa ATM fraud unit in Limpopo, in cases where cards were cloned, different devices were used. In some instances two devices were used at the same time.

He said a pin-capturing overlay pad saved the pin used and gave the syndicate access to the pin number after cloning the cards with a secondary device that can be linked to a cell phone or be placed on the ATM.

The card cloning device or card skimmer is placed on top of the real card slot, blocking the card from going into the ATM correctly and then giving an error message on the screen. This makes the cardholder think that either their pin was incorrectly entered or that the card was not working properly.

The woman said she was just grateful that she and her son, who was sitting in the car, were not injured.

“I shudder to think what could have happened if I had tried to call out for help.”

Ramoshaba said the first line of defence against ATM crime was to increase awareness of the different risks and precautions taken as far as possible.

Mokone du Preez owner of Mokone Shell, said there had been several incidents of this kind and they were all being investigated.

He said the best way to prevent this from happening was not to withdraw money while alone and to use ATM’s that were inside a store or a bank. “Always refuse assistance from any stranger. If you do not know how the ATM works, go to the bank to get assistance.”