| Definition |
This
is a card theft trick whereby a fraudster poses
at an ATM as a “Good Samaritan”
after forcing the ATM to “malfunction”
and then uses a sleight of hand to substitute
the customer’s card with an old bank card,
observing the customer entering his PIN (which
of course does not work for the old card). The
malfunction may involve “freezing”
the ATM by entering a specific sequence of zeros
on the keypad (this method of operation can
only be performed on certain machines). The
ATM does not switch off or show any obvious
sign of being tampered with. The victim tries
to insert his card in the reader, the ATM reader
slot will not properly open so the card will
not go all the way in. The thief comes along
and offers his assistance by pretending to push
the victim’s card into the slot. While
doing so, he either swaps the card or steals
it. A further twist can occur when the fraudster
offers to call the bank’s card loss division
for the customer, either to obtain the PIN number
if that has not already been achieved OR to
delay the reporting of the problem by the customer
to but time for more fraudulent withdrawals.
Once the card has been swapped, the thief offers
to call the bank’s card loss division
to cancel the card on the victim’s behalf,
using his cell phone. At the other end of the
phone is a member of the syndicate.
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