HIGHWAY residents are urged to be vigilant as a new wave of ATM robberies has hit Waterfall and Durban North.
Blue Security operations manager, Brian Jackson, said the criminals were targeting customers in broad daylight. In two separate incidents, almost R7 000 was stolen from ATM users.
Jackson said an incident was reported in Waterfall during which one of the criminals was arrested after he robbed a woman of her card in a card-swapping incident. “He fled with her card and withdrew R1 900 from another ATM, but an alert security guard arrested him and recovered the cash, which was handed back to the woman,” he said.
In another incident, a woman was robbed of her bank card at an ATM machine at a Durban North shopping centre. The robber approached her from behind, pressed the cancel button on the ATM and asked her if she had an international bank card. “He fled with the card and drew R5 000 from another ATM machine before the customer could stop her card,” said Jackson,
The ATM robberies are notoriously prevalent on weekends and during month-end periods. “Avoid drawing cash at night and always make sure you are aware of your surroundings when using an ATM. Never accept assistance from a stranger if your card gets stuck or the machine appears to be offline. Criminals also try to ‘shoulder surf’ to see a bank customer’s PIN number and then while offering to ‘help’, they grab the victim’s card from the machine,” said Jackson.
