A Krugersdorp resident is in despair after strangers nabbed her bank card at an ATM.
The Krugersdorp West resident who wishes to remain anonymous contacted the News to warn residents about two ‘friendly’ strangers who stole her month’s salary three minutes after ‘assisting’ her at the Standard Bank ATM in Rustenburg Street.
She was waiting in a short queue at the ATM and when it was her turn to use the machine she discovered it was not working as it did not want to take the card.
Thinking nothing strange of it, she went back to her vehicle to go look for another ATM. The man who was standing in the queue behind her approached her and told her the machine was working again.
“He had a card, cash and a slip in his hand,” she explained to the News.
She went back to the ATM when the friendly stranger explained to her that she had to insert the card into the machine at an angle.
In an interview with the resident, she explained how the machine was malfunctioning and the next moment her card disappeared.
“At first I thought the machine swallowed my card.”
The machine’s home screen also was different than usual. It asked for a voucher number instead of her pin.
The friendly stranger told her to put in her pin where the voucher number were required as it had worked for him.
In the meanwhile the friendly stranger casually disappeared and she noticed there was another man behind her in the queue. He told her the machine was slow because of new software.
She continued to try and enter her pin when the machine kept popping up messages, requesting a voucher number.
“All of a sudden my pin was displayed boldly on the screen,” said the resident shocked.
She repeatedly pressed cancel but her card wasn’t returned to her.
Related article: Don’t fall prey to this ATM scam
She decided to load airtime on her cellphone to call the bank to stop her card, which she believed was stuck in the machine at that time.
“I was too late, within minutes my whole salary was gone,” said the angry mom of five children.
The bank confirmed that a withdrawal of her whole salary was made with her card not far away at the FNB ATM at a Total garage.
The transactions were as follow:
• 6.52am (R3 000 withdrew)
• 6.53am (R3 000 withdrew)
• 6.54am (R2 000 withdrew)
“When I saw the video footage I realised he must have seen my pin when it was displayed largely on the ATM screen moments after he said the machine was slow because of new software.”
Video footage shows how the man who was behind her in the queue at the ATM makes three withdrawals after anxiously waiting to get to the machine.
The victim warns other residents to be on the lookout for two males in a black Opel Corsa hanging around garages and ATM machines and not to fall prey to their scam.
The victim is working with the bank to investigate the matter.
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