A Da Gama Park resident had money withdrawn from his account at the Absa terminal at the Fish Hoek Town Square after some men distracted him and managed to clone his card. Absa confirmed his card had been cloned but say they are not responsible. He is very unhappy and is looking for people with similar experiences to contact him but, even if you don’t, his letter serves as a warning.
“My story is a double whammy, firstly I’d like to warn all the valley residents of the current spate of credit/bank card cloning scam that is going around and the perpetrators’ ‘modis operandi’ and secondly I’d like to establish how many people were affected by this phenomenon like me, especially those whose claim has been acknowledged but not honoured.
“On Tue 24 Jan 12 at approx 17:48 I approached the ATM cubicles at Fishhoek ABSA bank in the square, as I approached 2 African gentleman came from behind the Wendy house type structure situated on the passage and entered the ATM area just before I got there. I waited for the first of the persons to finish their transactions, ironically the ATM furthest into the cubicle became available first.
“On completion of my transaction I placed my card and money in my wallet and started to leave and when I was about 3 paces away from the machine, I got called back by the next person in line, also an African gentleman with the statement that the machine I was busy on did not lock out of the transaction, I turned around and noticed that the ATM screen reflected a screen that I used to see after transferring money from one account to another “Do you wish to perform another transaction ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
“With concern I immediately returned and pressed the no button but received no response and after pressing cancel a few times I still did not get a response. Now what would any reasonable person now do, probably what I did but with a bit of concern for security. I put my card back into the machine but deliberately punched in the wrong code, my card was returned and the screen returned to normal.
“As I removed my card the gentleman behind me was over me like a rash with two R100-00 bills in his hand attempting to take hold of my card, I bashed him away, placed my card in my wallet and left, well a very bad experience has now been learnt, in those few seconds my card was cloned and I lost R8000-00 in two consecutive withdrawals.
“The ABSA Bank personnel was very proficient in their handling of my complaint on Thu 26 Jan 12 when I reported the matter after I discovered that money was missing from my account, all the necessary actions were taken immediately to stop my cards and report the matter to the fraud division. “The strangest part here is that I used my savings card to draw money, but the money I lost was withdrawn from my credit card account.
“On Fri 03 Feb 12 I received a call from the ABSA fraud division that acknowledged that I was indeed a victim of card cloning but due to the fact that I went back to the machine they were not going to honour my claim, notwithstanding the fact that I pay insurance for such incidents. The question I pose myself now is if I had not gone back and I lost money what would the fraud decisions reply would have been to that.
“For the second part I would like all members of the public who went through the same experience as me and whose claims were also not honoured to contact me in order for us to submit a collective complaint via legal channels and share the costs.
“With all this happening what is the bank senior management doing to ensure security at ATM machines, the bank personnel was aware that there was irregularities happening around the ATM machines, the SAPS was even phoned but the response time was to long, not blaming SAPS they have got there hands full with a lot of other criminal activities and complaints to attend to. ‘Sorry this is so long winded and verbose, but I needed to get this off my chest.”
Mark Boontjes or phone .
How did the card cloners get his pin number and also clone his card ?
Mark’s speculations below raise serious concerns about the banks being willing and able to keep ahead of the technology used to steal our money! His questions need answers from all the banks.
A) I noticed at the bank that there is a security camera inside the bank facing the ATM’s and upon asking staff members if the tapes can be reviewed to identify the perpetrators I was informed that monitoring was not done on site and that the information could possibly be obtained from head office.
So, what is the purpose then of the camera?
B) I have since learnt that the perpetrators carry a device that can copy the magnetic strip on any card so small it can be hidden in the palm of the hand. These devices have been around for a long time – statistics on card cloning is massive.
So, what are banks doing to prevent this from happening?
C) I am very concerned as to how my PIN was compromised so after surfing the net and thinking seriously about how I would attempt to obtain something without being noticed, I started checking out spy cameras, wow!! So small and self contained it can even be used to record data wireless to a cellphone.
Who would notice a little object 10X10 mm stuck to the side or top of the ATM pointing at the key pad. What’s more is that this is not even the smallest one can get on the market at any electronic or gadget store in the area. Hallo!!, Cash Converters/Crusaders even carry the stuff.
Sorry this is getting a bit verbose again.
D) My main concern however is; How was the ATM manipulated to display the screen that it did? Surely the ATM should have build in security measures to prevent this from happening? Or are the perpetrators so far ahead in the rat race that nobody can do anything about it?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against ABSA. This is about banking and it’s hierarchy in general, cloning does not happen to ABSA bankers only, nobody is spared of this inconvenience, it could happen to you or anyone else tomorrow.
Hallo I can’t afford to loose this type of money in this day and age, I pressume, neither can anybody else. My name is not Rockerfellar, I’m just the other fella.
Mark Boontjes