Be Wary!
We’ve had a number of reports of people having their cards scammed at Isle of Wight cashpoints over the last few days.
Sal Maloney contacted VB and told us that people she knows have used cashpoints in Newport, Shanklin and Lake have later found that money has mysteriously disappeared from their bank accounts.
She also told VentnorBlog, “(friend) got chatting to a scooterist in Ryde who had 300 pound missing out of his bank this weekend.”
Take care
Criminals pulling cashpoint scams are very sophisticated.
One method is to attach a device to the place you put your card in, that reads the magnetic strip as it goes into the machine. A micro video camera is then used to monitor your PIN as you type it into the cashpoint.
As the machine functions as you’d expect – ie, you get your cash out – you suspect nothing. The scammer has all they need to take money from your account.
The photos on this story used above from the site BustaThief is only used as an illustration, not necessarily what it will look like, so be wary.
From the two photos, it’s clear that it would be very hard to tell if the cashpoint had been hacked.
What do do
Many years ago, we were hit by one of these scams. The best defence is use your spare hand to cover the hand that you use to type in the PIN, that way a video camera cannot ‘watch’ the number you type in.
The site BustaThief also has additional information on it worth reading up on.
We’re following this up with the Police.
