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PEOPLE ARE BEING warned to be aware of a new scam being carried out by thieves at ATM machines.
According to the Irish Payment Services Organisation, the the con-artists are distracting customers while they use machines, and replacing their cards with stolen or cancelled ones. Thieves carrying out the scam have netted €30,000 in the past week from six such cases.
In the course of the deception, the criminal first places a device on the ATM which traps the user’s card in the slot. The unsuspecting customer then uses the machine while the criminal watches as they key in their PIN.
According to the IPSO:
On completing the cash withdrawal the cardholder realises their card is not coming out of the machine. At this point, the criminal offers to help the victim to retrieve their card. The individual pretends to recover the card but actually gives the victim back a substitute card which looks similar to theirs.The victim does not realise the ‘retrieved’ card is not theirs until they attempt to use it again. This allows the criminal time to use the genuine card for some time before the loss has been realised by the bona fide cardholder and reported to their bank.
In addition to taking as much cash possible from ATMs, criminals have also been recorded using stolen cards at in-branch kiosks to transfer cash to foreign accounts.
The IPSO – which represents the payments industry – is urging people to warn “elderly or vulnerable friends and family about the scam” and to avoid talking to strangers at ATMS.
The organisation is also reminding customers of the importance of covering up the PIN pad when entering their number.
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Transfer money to foreign countries !
If their caught can we also transfer them to foreign countries.
It’s unbelievable they’re always one step ahead,what will they think of next.you have to hand it to them they’re always evolving their business
Not allowed say that, you’ll get a red thumb. What you should have said was make these poor people Irish citizens and give them a hug for being foreign
Probably bank top brass dressed as thieves robbing people of their money another way !!!!
Call in The Batman
It needs to be pointed out that the safest means of obtaining cash is the ATM’s located inside the bank.
Yes I agree ! Base ball batman ! Lol
Yes that is correct but unfortunately we don’t have the easy hours as people working in banks so maybe we need to get money out when the doors are shut. And us say most machines are used outside normal banking hours.
Ah yes the standard xenophobic reaction.
You do realise the Aussies are saying the same “put them back on the boat” nonsense about the Irish!?
Fools
I’d
@ kerron . There only one fool here. Why dont u get them your card and number and instead why not leave ?
huh?
Kerron it’s hardly xenophobic to complain about a foreign national criminal gang operating in Ireland or to suggest that members of this gang should be deported…it is simply logical.
As to your point about Australia, if Irish people are committing crime in Australia I’d have no problem with the Australian authorities deporting them back here.
It’s not logical at all actually. The opposite in fact. It feeds into wider narratives that are begining to emerge about deporting ‘spongers’ and sets a very dangerous precedent. If these people are living here legally then the state is obliged to deal with them and the social problems they cause, and indeed deal with their criminal tendencies, even if that means rehabilitating them.
I mentioned nothing about ‘Spongers’ Kerron, I was talking about criminals. I don’t think it’s the states job to rehabilitate these particular criminals, personally I do not believe they can be rehabilitated but that’s another argument.
You mention that the state is legally obliged to deal with them, I agree with you. But I believe exclusion orders are the way to go if they are EU nationals…but I’m sure this wouldn’t sit right with your liberal ideals.
It doesn’t matter that you specifically didn’t mention it. It’s implied in other comments on the thread. And i hear such sentiment on an almost weekly basis.
Im not a liberal. Im a socialist. I believe that if capitalist mini Empires like the EU want their free movement of labour for the benefit of big business then they can deal with the consequences of that too
And one of the ways of dealing with this is by the use of exclusion orders as I stated.
Socialism as an idea is all well and good, but in reality it really doesn’t work in its purest form…and if it’s not being applied in its purest form is it really socialism. But that’s a different argument.
They said the same thing about bourgeois capitalism in its early days. Within 15 years of the 1789 revolution against Louis 14 monarchy had been restored and feudalism again in the ascendancy. But look at the world today and the spread of liberal democracy. Cuba and Venezuela are only prototypes of an inevitable world socialism. People won’t go on being exploited.
Are you seriously trying to tell me that the people of Cuba and Venezuela aren’t being exploited by their respective governments?!
Yeah because giving the poor free healthcare and education is “exploiting” them.
As is next to 0% infant mortality and 100% literacy rates
(UN confirmed figures)
This Oscar getting boring. The facts are there for those who want to see them!
Good day
Anyone gets too close to me at an ATM is politely told to move away AND the rule is not to leave the machine if there is a problem but to phone your bank and watch like a hawk.
Anybody gets too close to me at an atm & politeness does not enter the equation. Doesn’t matter who they are, if you think they’re too close, make a scene, you’ll be safer drawing attention.
Maybe atm’s should have a panic button, that only engage if a transaction is open, it could suspend account immediately and sound a loud siren.
Great idea Matt.
@Matt
Someone told me this urban legend which they believed to be true:
Approach ATM, if a dodgy fella hangs near you and you slip in your card into hole-in-d-wall, enter the PIN in reverse, will sound alarm and cops notified.
Sad thing was, this was a senior citizen who told me this, I said, simply untrue and is a cock-n-bull story. Shows how vulnerable they are.
What ATM’s need is a pad shield to enter the pin IMHO, or better, and this is common on the continent, a secure cubicle, off the street, fit for one ATM user operating, with special glass so no one can see from the outside,
How about fingerprint scanner and a retina scanner too?
Thieving bas**rds, they’ll get shag all out of my account.
Cannot fault you saying that as you *do* have the light-sabre sword… :)
Scambags, More troublesome foreigners we gleefully opened our doors for.
Foreigners? Your government is robbing you blind (USC, pension levy, pay cuts, water charges etc etc) Foreigners don’t have the country the way it is.
Off topic Anthony but it was German money that has wrecked the gaff, und the new ‘charges’ are merely the mechanism for getting their money back.
Rodger,do you think your local natives would-be to thick for it ?
Yeah i do, history has shown our scammers are ok with the basic stuff like tying up elderly but the IT scam is beyond them
Everybody reading this should post it on their fb or twitter page & please inform older relatives & neighbours who may not have access to the internet. What a horrible mentality to do such a thing. I really hope the Gardaí get on top of the gangs responsible for this scam. Some very horrible minded people out there.
I’ve been waiting at cash points all day for someone to give me a different card. My one keeps telling me the bank has insufficient funds.
D*ckheads.
We badly need new, safer, atm technology
This is not about the technology, these guys are watching you enter your pin and then stealing your card. People need to be more vigilant and also completely hide their pin when entering it.
As often as possible, any moolah I withdraw I do so in or from an in-branch ATM or if this is not possible, via Cash Back in a Pub/Shop/Supermarket or else In-Store ATMs.
Reluctant to “Trust” on-street ATMs even though they be, in some cases, built into the walls of actual bank branches.
Simple tip . When you are about to enter your pin , stop , look around at who is near to you , stare them in the eye . If they are up to no good , they always shift , guaranteed .
Anyone standing too close to me at an ATM gets swiftly elbowed in the face.
yeah thats very nice if they happen to be completely innocent of any intentions to rob :)
Everybody knows to give space, it’s atm etiquette.
Same applies at urinals guys
I recently was stopped by a Roma gypsy at an ATM. She needed help as she said she couldn’t read, she preceded to take out €600 with me pressing the buttons. What I found funny was she covered her pin so as I couldn’t see it
Was she using your card?
She was using someone elses card.
Checked my pocket to make sure it wasn’t mine. She did it in two transactions so was stuck there for ages. Does that make me an accessory to a crime?
Just makes you an idiot
Ah where’s your Irish spirit of hospitality, even got a big gold tooth thank you smile from her. Was afraid she’d put a curse on me if I didn’t help
Well played sir.. Have my green thumb
With all the warnings on the media and on ATMs over the years would you seriously allow someone to help you with you your transactions?Cmon seriously
Susan you need to remember that the people they seem to be targeting are mostly old vulnerable people. I live in rural Ireland and so many local post offices are closing down which means that many peoples pensions are now being paid into the bank. For many old people this may well be their first experience ever of having a bank account. I know many elderly people & they would find the whole thing of setting up a password etc very stressful & if something seems to go wrong when they try to withdraw money at the ATM they would gladly accept the “help” of a so called “nice” person who came to their assistance. It is easy to say we are all warned etc but you must remember not everybody is in the prime of their life with fully functioning faculties.
What Mary is saying is that some people are eejits and need to be protected from themselves.
Kevin, YOU are an eejit. Being vulnerable is not the same as being an eejit.
Emilio thank you for that, I personally didn’t think Kevin’s post was worthy of a reply from me. With a mindset such as he has he is the one who needs to be protected from himself.
Mary, I am in full agreement and your right.After I wrote that I thought of vulnerable people as you say above.S
I did this tonight! Chap (a Neighbour granted but would only barely know him so say hello/good evening to etc. Sure I’ve caught his’ name before but didn’t register) asked me did I know how to use them bank card thingys. I said I did & headed up the road to the nearest ATM. He proceeds to whip out the Letter that comes with the P.I.N. (I’d asked him did he know it!). So now, I have his’ P.I.N. (technically I don’t; I’ve actually genuinely forgotten it thankfully! I just hope he doesn’t though!) & access to his’ card. If I was a ne’er do well, alls I’d have to do is clobber him across the head/face/jaw & make off with it.
He’s a chap in his’ Late 40s I think & I was shocked he didn’t know how to use it. But he’s the type scammers will take advantage of & he won’t know any different unfortunately. :(
He’d no money in it as it happens (Pay-Day Thursday) but it would’ve been so easy to con someone like this. Naive in the extreme. I can’t even tell or show him how to change his’ P.I.N. as such as it’s something he’ll have to do or learn to himself.
And to think I found it incredible that Bertie Ahern, our’ Min. for Finance said he hadn’t a Bank Account? It still happens unfortunately.
I’ll probably get thumbed down for my seeming arrogance or cockyness here but I KNOW I would not fall for that.
I think they’re more so preying on the elderly than suits, over the years I’ve had a handful of old folk asking me to show them how to use an ATM, card and pin in hand
Famous last words…..
A romanian offers to help you at atm hmmmm not at all suspicious
This is a serious question…how do the banks not know that the ATM machines are interfered with????? They are on their premises? Maybe that’s a stupid question?
It’s generally not in branch ATMs obv. but attached/built in to the wall of the branch. Though if an ATM was/is being interfered with (I.E. Not being used to withdraw money from), then an alarm should sound surely? I know it does when a JCB goes to pull it from the wall and onto a trailer anyway! :)
Some people are just stupid and deserve to get robbed, I was parked in front of an ATM waiting for my wife while she was in the AIB – 6 people used the ATM and I got all 6 pin numbers. I knew of them and said to them later on. He felt like a real idiot. About time they brought in eye scanners or FPR. COVER it up people…
Not elderly or vulnerable.
Yeah Terry, those eye scanners would bring a whole new meaning to the “they’d steal the eyes outta the back of your head” phrase ;)
@Terry. Sitting in a parked car and you got six PIN numbers? You must have bionic eyesight Terry. Can’t work out how you see from your car to an ATM key pad so well.
I prop my bag,a big one,and my other hand around the entry for the pin,I dont care what people think!,a bit like at school when you didnt want any one copying your homework! As said before,do not leave the A T M,if nothing comes out,stay there and ring your bank,have phone No on you.
It’s one thing hiding your pin… but hiding your homework is just plain scabby…
I blame the banks they have pushed us all out the door and forced us to use ATMs and on line – people should use their local credit union where at least you can deal with a person and take money out as you need it .
Why would you want to queue in a branch when you can do your banking from your couch? ATM’s have been around for decades, just saying, now off to the Credit Union with Bridie with you
Robbed by the banks and then robbed by the con artists.
The con artists are guilty of illegality because they do it on a small scale. The banks do it on a large scale, which is legal.
It would be some scam if they got thousands from my account, I’d gladly give them half if they did
Banks wish is cashless society. .these r sum of the problems …sure they dont give a shixt..
Maybe the folks from Revenue are responsible?
Case closed,you solved the case
Using a strip of X-ray film, bent halfway and a small tab bent inward and inserted to the card slot. It’s easy to spot if you know what to look for. Once the card is caught the “helpful citizen” explains that entering your PIN backwards should eject the card.
So keep your eyes open for a small bit of plastic film poking across the card slot.
Luckly im -500 on my acconunt so actually they cant steal anything cause ive got nothing but debt ;]
Someone’s been watching The Real Hustle on TV. One of those episodes shows a very similar scam.
Love it…. Can’t beat a bit of criminality
The ATM paper clip scam of the early 80s…..yet to be beaten for its simplicity.
Cowboys Ted!
Banks have been allowed have literally no security on ATM’s, for customers anyway, for far too long! They introduced the ‘chip and pin’ to reduce fraud, but it seems to have increased. If the scammers can attach pin camera’s and false front’s to ATM machines, surely the banks could find some way to block the signal to the alien devices. Why is their cash in the machine so secure until a customer tries to withdraw it and the ‘security seal’ can be broken in very simple ways?
the banks robbed us all and there was nothing done about it lol
That an old scam, there are more modern ones that can scan the info from your card while its still in your wallet in your pocket.
30k from 6 such cases? Who the hell has 5k in their account these days?
elbilluG
There is sort of a panic button on all ATMs. If punch in your pin code backwards ie. 1234 to 4321 and then the police are alerted by the bank.
Really?
Seen this displayed on an aib ATM , seems like a good idea , unless you are dyslexic
That backwards PIN idea does not actually work. It doesn’t send any panic signal, and was proved to be fake advice about two years ago. The police in the UK debunked the rumour, but not before it had spread to here.
!esra em ssiK
It doesn’t matter what they do – if you cover your PIN, they can’t do anything with your card, if they steal it or copy it etc etc. Make sure vulnerable people know that. Not talking to strangers while using ATMs is another simple bit of advice
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