Parking Ticket/atm Scam

[bainbrig]

My wife parked her car outside the Co-op. She came out and a bloke approached her saying she had just got a parking ticket, but if she put her credit card into the adjacent ATM and pressed a certain button (within 5 minutes) it would cancel the ticket. (Eh?)

Anyway, she was rushed, a bit flustered, so put her card in the ATM and the guy came up next to her and said 'press the button there with your left hand and with your right hand enter your PIN'... at which stage my partner started to cotton on! Manager of the Co-op then came out, the bloke (and his mate), wandered off, and the manager confirmed that they were up to no good.

Moral: be careful of 'good Samaritans', particularly around ATM machines...

BB

[fiction-factory]

I wonder how this was supposed to work. were they reading the PIN and skimming the card or planning to pinch it? Or asking her tp pay cash for an instant fine?

[Hopkirk]

What they do is memorise the PIN, distract you and nick the card and mislead you that the machine kept the card.

[bainbrig]

Yes, somehow the machine DID keep the card, and the bloke did sidle up to Mrs B looking for her PIN. The card was cancelled within 30 minutes.

[Hopkirk]

I doubt the machine did keep the card BB. They are good at what they do, like magicians.

[Davemano]

May have happened to others in the area - they may be on CCTV - suggest report to Police.

[Jackdaw33]

Did she actually have a ticket on her car?

[bainbrig]

No, no visible ticket. The scammers told her ‘it was all electronic these days’ and that ‘my mum had the same thing last week!’

[ummmm]

Does your wife use the internet?

[Jackdaw33]

What a load of old pony! Normally ATM scams are carried out by East Europeans but these guys sound as though they were British.

[bednobs]

lol how can someone sound british from a third hand report of their activities?

[Jackdaw33]

If the language used is reported accurately then these are things a foreigner would not say.

[bainbrig]

Yes, she is an avid internet user.

First guy was Asian-English, respectable-looking apparently, fairly well-spoken. His less talkative mate was black English.

Partner is usually wise to scams, but these two were obviously clever - she seemed in a rush (she was), she had parked questionably, she is getting on (70), etc., so a well-chosen mark. Luckily she cottoned-on very quickly, and we phoned CPP (Card Protection Plan) immediately to get the card cancelled - believe it or not, it's quicker than phoning the card company (a Newday one), where you have to go through endless keying in and voice activation before you get anywhere.

[Jackdaw33]

Your wife was very lucky as it doesn't take half an hour to plunder someone's account. If I ever see anyone hanging around an ATM who is clearly not making a transaction I just move on to the next one.