Be careful, be careful. ATMs are the favorite playground for scammers, since they can steal both your bank card and the tickets you are waiting for, so what more could you ask for? When they are particularly lucky or you are particularly gullible, they also manage to obtain your bank card code and rush to withdraw as much cash as possible before you object.
The crooks redouble their ingenuity to succeed in stealing your means of payment and one method is particularly effective, that of the camera. All automatons have a means of video surveillance and it is on this that some thugs play. Le Progrès St-Affricain already alerted to this scam in the summer of 2021, citing the gendarmerie: “Very advanced and creative, the tricks of the thugs go unnoticed. The operating mode of the crook is so well orchestrated that even the greatest caution is not always enough to thwart bad intentions”.
One of these tricks is almost imperceptible, they add to the local newspaper: “The scammer who is near the ATM tells the victim either that he has forgotten some banknotes, or that his own card is blocked, or that the keyboard is malfunctioning”. This is when the scammer asks his victim “to introduce his bank card to unlock his, or check that the keyboard works”.
Often, criminals have installed a camera device at the keyboard, which allows them to learn your secret code before stealing your means of payment. With Progrès St-Affricain, the gendarmes add: “By a simple device that he has installed, the scammer tells the victim that his card has remained blocked and that he will have to go to the counter to ask for it to be returned. Once the victim has left, he returns to retrieve the card and, using the secret code obtained, makes fraudulent withdrawals”.
To avoid taking any risks in this kind of situation, make sure you always conceal your credit card code with your hand. You can also pull the card entry device to check that nothing has been added to it by crooks.
As the Public Service website explains, it is important to act quickly if your bank card is stolen. Here’s how: