81-year-old falls victim to ATM scammers
The criminals emptied out the pensioner's account after a card cloning incident in Broadway.
A DURBAN North resident has told how her elderly mother fell victim to an ATM cloning incident at an ABSA stall on Swapo Road (Broadway). The incident occurred on Wednesday at about 11am. Claudette Roodt said more than R2 000 was stolen from her 81-year-old mother. What’s more, it took only an hour for the criminals carry out the theft.
“A family friend had taken my mother to the ATM to draw some money. While she waited in the car, he walked into the stall and put in the card, however the machine swallowed the card, saying the card had expired. He then left the stall thinking the card had expired and did noticed a man waiting behind him but thought nothing of it. However, an hour later the criminals had taken out all of her pension,” he said.
After checking with the bank, they discovered that the criminals had used a service station across the road to draw the money. “I’d just like to warn residents, especially pensioners, to be vigilant at ATM stalls.”
This year so far there have been more than five cases of ATM card cloning, amounting to more than R12 000.
