ATM Theft. Its soooo easy.......

Tweet

This really happened to a friend of mine. She went to her automatic teller machine (ATM) to withdraw some money for her weekly use. Just like any other day she inserted the card but the usual screen and response did not come from the machine. Then another customer waiting in line came to the machine and volunteered to help and told her to key in the PIN number. She did it quickly, but still no response. Then the other customer pressed the keys and tried and wanted her PIN number. But my friend was smart enough and did not give the number. Instead she gave a bogus one. The other customer tried pressing that number to get the machine to react. But nothing happened. Then my friend came out thinking of calling the bank to retrieve the card. Then she felt that something was fishy as another customer joined the earlier one and both were looking suspicious. She told the security guard and the authorities would have noted something over the security cameras and police arrived at the scene within seconds. The police checked the two people and found my friends ATM card and a small strip made of X-ray film with them. Thanks to my friends vigilance her money was safe and a chain of events that would have followed was prevented. When she told this to me we were hacking our brains and thinking how the two crooks were able to get her ATM card. Then about three days later I got an email about ATM theft and this clearly explained what would have happened to my friend at the ATM machine. According to that email thieves use a simple strip made of X-ray film and insert it to the card slot of the machine and paste the edges so that the strip will not go right in and also not visible to anyone. When a account holder inserts the ATM card the card will be trapped by this strip (see image) and will not go in or come out. Then a thief, who also has an accomplice, will come and volunteer to help and fool the ATM user to give the PIN number. After sometime once convinced that the card is retained the account holder will leave and the thief can now pull out the X-ray strip with the card and use it with all the liberty that he wants to have. Now I am sure that this email is not a joke or hoax. I also have an explanation to what happened to my friends ATM card on that day. Anyway please take care in your online transactions and ATM withdrawals.