Another resident, this time a 59-year-old man fell for an ATM scam after having withdrawn cash at the Greenhills Circle earlier this week.
The victim, Patrick Carter explained to the herald that he went to the Nedbank ATM to withdraw R150 to pay for meat at a local butchery when the incident occurred.
“I had just finished withdrawing the money when a man approached me from behind and tapped me on my shoulder. I turned around and he told me that I had not finished my transactions at the ATM and that he could not use the machine because of this. Out of consideration I returned to the ATM to see what he was talking about. I decided to put in my bank card again.
“This time it wouldn’t go in and he advised me to tilt the card and I did just that. The card went into the machine and I thought that this would be the end of it,” says Carter.
He adds that his card remained stuck in the machine though and when he turned around to look for help, the man was nowhere to be seen.
Carter then rushed to the Nedbank branch at the Village Square and that’s when he got the shock of his life. Three messages came in; one indicating a R1 000 withdrawal at an unknown location, while the other one stated that R3 000 had been withdrawn from Shoprite in Randfontein. The third message indicated that airtime worth R850 had been bought at Spar on Main Road.
In a state of panic carter entered the bank and requested that his cards be blocked immediately. “I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I read those messages. Everything just happened so quickly. One minute I was at the ATM and the next, I had lost close to R5 000. I can’t even tell you how this happened or how the man got hold of my pin number.
“It really is just shocking,” says Carter.
He adds that he has reported the matter to the police and that the case is under investigation.
Carter tells the herald that this should serve as a warning to people that they need to be vigilant at all times when using the ATM and never trust anyone.
