ATM scammers

During our stop over in Singapore on the way to Malaysia I phoned it in that my bank card had been lost (see Bali entry) and needed to be issued a new card. I told them the date that I had lost the card (August 19th) and where I had lost it.

I was a little shocked to find out that the card was used twice more after I had used it, at the same terminal, mere minutes after I had left. Thank god for daily limits.... I lost around 300$ due to this. the man on the Royal Bank Service line was friendly, and told me to report it when I get back to Canada and I may get my money back, but I'm not sure.

Now, I had known about ATM machine scams, and from what I had read about them they involved devices protruding from the ATM. I had been warned not to use such ATMs and to only stick with ATMs associated with actual banks. Well, the bank machine that I was at in Bali had no visible device, and it was an ATM linked to a particular bank.

The machine asked me for my PIN, gave me the money, a receipt, and the window said "Thank You - Have a nice day!"

I was conditioned by every other bank machine our there to think that it gives you money, receipt, says thank you, that's the end of the transaction. The card is always spit back to you before that, even beeping if you don't pick it up right away. However, this one had somehow been hacked to say thank you and keep the card in....

I know this is the case because the same thing happened to Anita in Yogyakarta at a mall ATM except we noticed it kept the card. We actually had to hit the "cancel" button to make the "Thank you, have a nice day" message go away. When we did, it brought us to the "would you like to make another transaction?" screen.... Scammers.

They must camp out by the ATMs waiting for people to leave and then immediately go to the machine before anyone else does. Mine was hit up mere minutes after I left according the the Royal Bank phone service.

Well, now I know to be extra careful at ATMs. That guy better have needed the money bad...