Bank card thieves outwit woman
Woman frazzled as thief makes off with bank card and leaves her with petrol bill and no way to pay.
JOHANNESBURG SOUTH – Criminals allegedly got the better of an unsuspecting woman at an ATM at a Ridgeway petrol station on September 30.
A few minutes later, while she was still at the petrol station, SMS reports of withdrawals came in. Thousands of rands had been withdrawn from her bank account within a matter of minutes.
The criminal was at a nearby filling station, helping himself to all he could get out of the victim’s bank account.
On October 1, a South resident alerted Mondeor Police Station – Mondeor Community Policing Forum on their Facebook page of the robbery.
The post read: “I was filling petrol at Engen garage now on Swartgoud Road Ridgeway, when a lady who was using the ATM had her card stolen. A man approached her while she was busy to ask her if the ATM was working. Within seconds he stole her card and drove off in an old silver Toyota Corolla. He was wearing a red hoodie. Her card has already been used as she received an SMS from ABSA informing her of a cash withdrawal.”
Petrol attendants at Engen garage confirmed the occurrence. According to an attendant, the woman had requested he pour in R100 worth of petrol, while she quickly went to the Standard Bank ATM. While he and his colleagues attended to the vehicle’s filling up, the crime occurred.
“The woman was at the ATM when someone approached her. It all happened so fast and then the guy was gone. I think she was still in shock because she only alerted us of what happened after the guys drove off,” said the petrol attendant who assisted her.
It is unknown if the man had accomplices working with him.
Mondeor Police Station Communications Officer, Constable Mnguni, told the CHRONICLE that a case had not been opened with at Mondeor Station as the Engen garage is in the Booysens Police Station jurisdiction.
The criminals may have used a card skimming device to fraudulently copy the woman’s bank details, which is why they were able to get access to her bank account as quickly as they did.
When a card is skimmed, the banking details are copied and stored on a magnetic strip at the back of a debit or credit card.
The Banking Association of South Africa reports that majority of skimming incidents in the country are recorded around ATMs, also at retail merchants, when bank cards are presented. Consumers run the risk of being skimmed whenever they present their card for payment or withdrawal.
Tactics used by criminals listed by The Banking Association to access your personal details and skim your card are:
* Skimming of card and shoulder surfing customer PINs. The perpetrators approach unsuspecting ATM users prior to or after concluding a transaction and claim to work for the bank. The target is advised to ‘re-activate’ their cards by swiping the card through a ‘card reactivating device’. The ‘card reactivating device’ is actually a handheld skimming device.
* ATMs that are tampered with or damaged. Customers should never use ATMs that seem damaged or tampered with, because this creates opportunity for card fraudsters. When a customer is confronted with an ATM that is damaged or tampered with, the perpetrator will approach the customer and use social engineering tactics to take the customer’s ATM card.
* Card skimming at retail merchant point of sales. Criminals often collude with staff working at retail outlets such as waiters or cashiers. The card fraud perpetrators provide business staff with handheld skimming devices and reward them for skimming customers’ cards.
