A card-cloning syndicate operating on Durban's North Beach targets people withdrawing cash from ATMs at garages and supermarkets.
|||Durban - A card-cloning syndicate operating on Durban’s North Beach has been targeting people withdrawing cash from ATMs at garages and supermarkets.
Hardest hit in recent months has been the Caltex garage on Playfair Road.
Garage manager Andrea Lennon said the suspects travelled in different vehicles, including a Mini Cooper, a VW Polo and a Subaru.
About five incidents had been reported in the past month, Lennon said.
Police spokesman Captain Khephu Ndlovu said the North Beach area was a hot spot for card cloning but many of the cases went unreported.
In the latest incident, businessman Max Youngelson became a victim when he attempted to withdraw cash from a Standard Bank ATM in the garage’s convenience store.
One suspect waited in the car, another kept watch in the store while a third stood behind Youngelson at the ATM.
Youngelson said: “I was about to put my card into the machine when the guys behind me pushed his hand forward and slotted his card into the ATM.”
He said the man apologised for “jumping the queue” and said he was in a hurry as he had double-parked.
“I did not say anything. He was at the ATM for about two minutes before he left. At the time I did not suspect anything and went ahead with my transaction.”
When Youngelson inserted his card in the machine, it prompted him to re-enter his pin code.
“The screen read that there was a problem. I re-entered it and seconds later my pin code came up in big bold writing on the screen. I was shocked and immediately realised something was wrong.”
He said when he turned, he saw the man behind him again.
“He told me there was something wrong with the machine and he did not get his money. He was holding some papers in his hand.”
Youngelson said the man told him to cancel his transaction.
“Nothing happened. He then pressed cancel. During this time he managed to take my card. I then noticed my pin code on the screen again. I knew this fellow was up to no good.”
He said he tried to grab hold of the man but he ran off.
“He dropped the card and another suspect in the store picked it up. I was screaming and chasing after him.”
The two suspects ran to a Polo that was idling in the courtyard.
“The manager, Andrea, also gave chase. She tried to pull the key out of the ignition. It broke. Fortunately for them the car was idling so they managed to take off.”
Youngelson said he immediately called his bank to cancel his card. Fortunately, no withdrawals had been made.
“The operator told me that I was the fourth person in Durban on that day to fall victim to card cloners.”
Lennon said when she tried to stop the suspects, they verbally abused her and called her a “stupid white lady”.
“These thugs run a slick operation. They are in and out within minutes. Sometimes victims don’t even realise immediately their cards had been cloned.”
She said she knew of several other card-cloning incidents at supermarkets and garages in the North Beach area.
Earlier in the week another victim had been robbed of R5 000 after his card had been cloned at the same garage.
In another incident, a Chatsworth woman is waiting to be refunded after her card was cloned at an eManzimtoti shopping centre and R9 500 was withdrawn.
Vanessa Moodley said she had gone into the mall to withdraw cash when her card jammed in the ATM.
“I tried to cancel the transaction but the card never came out. As I called the call centre, an SMS went off on my cellphone indicating that R5 000 had been withdrawn. Seconds later I got another SMS for a R4 500 withdrawal.”
Last month the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) reported an increase in the number of bank card clonings
Sabric warned that counterfeit card fraud remained a national threat.
“Early indications in the first quarter of 2013 are that there is an increase when compared to the same period last year,” said Sabric’s general manager for commercial crime, Susan Potgieter.
From January 1 until April 30, Sabric recorded 154 card fraud-related arrests nationally.
Over the past two months a further 25 cases of card skimming and swopping have been reported nationally.
Daily News