Mr Johan van der Merwe was involved in Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) fraud and theft and people are urged to be on the look out when withdrawing money.
On Friday, August 28 at 12:15 van der Merwe went to an ATM next to a well known shop kiosk situated in Highveld Centre.
“I noticed a guy with a white cap was standing in front of me, also waiting to draw money,” said van der Merwe.
It was a busy end of the month Friday. The person with the white cap had his chance to do his thing at the ATM and moved to one side.
Van der Merwe then walked to the ATM and placed his card in the machine to draw money.
“My card would not go into the slide on the machine and the screen was showing all sorts of funny things, that has never before appeared on the screen when you try to withdraw money,” explained van der Merwe.
Immediately the man who was withdrawing the money just before me came closer and started pressing buttons on the keyboard and tried to explain to me what to do to draw money from this specific ATM.
Within seconds he grabbed van der Merwe’s card from his hand and disappeared in between the people in the shopping center.
“I did not put my pin number into the machine or let him know what my pin number was,” said van der Merwe.
That is when van der Merwe realized he was mugged and he started running towards his shop. After stopping his card successfully he received an SMS that money was withdrawn from two other ATM’s. The amounts withdrawn were R2000 at 12:24 and R3000 at 12:25.
