ATM Fraud And Me

Beware on the signature debit side of the house . . . your charge back rights and fraud recovery times are much different on signature debit transactions than what you may have experienced with a debit with pin or credit card transaction.

As for ATM transactions not being tracked . . . you may want to look for a new bank . . . many institutions outsource their card processing (small community banks are likely culprits) and often don't run their own fraud detection software, so are are held hostage to what their vendors provide (or in this case, don't provide); It sounds like your bank may fall into this scenario. Most larger institutions actually track all card transactions, regardless of the origin or type.

Well...that *&^%$#@ blows. Bastards. For that reason, among others, I have completely quit using my PIN ATM card for some time now and only use my Visa. Even though, some of the larger banks still carry coverage on their ATM cards. See: http://www.bankofamerica.com/deposits/checksave/index.cfm?template=checkcards_tsp .
Anyway....hope they catch the MFs.

Man, you just never know...

Just found your site in a Google search (ha). I hope my bank ends up being as good as yours, because I just found a fraudulent $482 withdrawal, also from a Bank of America ATM, in Los Angeles (20-30 miles from where I live, I'd guess). I'm lucky, at least, to have caught it on the first transaction, I think, but the bank rep on the phone seemed reticent to shut my card down, and I had to ask twice for it to happen. He even asked me whether I wanted to change my PIN or not. Duh! These guys are practically inviting fraud.

Ugggghhhh

I bank at a WAMU in Las Vegas, Nevada. Went to the local convenience store to purchase a cup of coffee and they told me that my card was declined...YHARRRR! After getting to work, without my coffee, I logged into my account and noticed two atm withdrawals totaling 1004.50...all while I slept. One in the evening and another just after midnight. I went to the police after calling my bank and they all but told me that I did it myself. They said, "This is just ridiculous! You MUST have given somebody your card and PIN". Oh sure, I'm ALWAYS giving out my card and PIN...EVERYDAY!!!! WAMU is the BOMB! They will be crediting my account in 5 business days. I hope these scam artists burn in HELL! Merchants can store your PIN numbers when you make a simple purchase and crafty hackers can recreate a white blank card with all of your nifty information!

I Bank with wamu here in Las Vegas and I just discovered today that my account was charged for 302.00 than 202.00 the other evening while I was at home on the couch.
I sure hope Wamu does the right thing for me as well.

I made the above post and just would like to say WAMU came through and reimbursed me for the charges.
I have been doing quite a bit of reading and I will no longer be using my pin number at any merchant.

Well - I read up on these debit card ATM transactions after I found 3 max withdrawals on my bank statement. In my case there is a lot of mystery.
I never use my debit card except for ATM transactions at my own bank, WAMU, and only if the ATMs are on the inside of the bank.
I have never used my debit card at a retailer or online.

So - the question is - how did they get my information, including my PIN?
The only answer that comes to my mind is a 'dirty' employee.

I am very compelled by your story. I am in a very similar situation except the police came back and want to point the finger at me since there is no CCTV on the ATM that was used. What did the police and the bank say or do in your situation? Do you think that you were a victom of "phantom withdrawls"? I am look forward to hearing from you! Please feel free to contact me at the listed e-mail as well as latocha.duckworth@elmendorf.af.mil

Latocha

I am glad to hear you all got help from your bank. My husband and I run a business here in Indiana and was a victim of the same ATM fraud. However my bank is not as nice and is why they are no longer our bank. Over a period of two months someone took out almost 2000.00 in ATM transactions at foreign atms in my Neighborhood! I rarely used an atm and we only use our pin at one or two places. If I was ever in need of an atm I would find one of my banks ATM's and use it. All of these fraud charges were at atms that were within blocks of my bank. Not to mention they would happen in multiples on the same day. When I finally had someone on the phone at the bank and explained to them what was going on they didn't really seem to concerned with the theft but was more concerned on trying to get me to trip up and say that I gave out my card or pin number. Of course I went to the bank and turned over my card (watched them shred it) and ordered a new one and filled out he afidavits for the charges. Even though I had relenqueshed my card they never captured it and it was still usable unknown to me. After two weeks with no new card, I called to ask why and was told it was never cancelled or reissued. I immediately had customer service cancel and reissue me another. But what I thought was odd was even though the card was still active the charges stopped as soon as the card was turned over to the bank. My husbands card was not used in the fraud and had no threats so it was still active so we had access to our account, until they froze it for deposits only. But not until after racking up over 3200.00 in fees from them for overdraft and returned items fees due to the withdraws from the ATMs. So now we have no way to get any money even if we deposited money it the account, when our credit cards were process for our customers then the money would go into that account only to be eaten by fees. My account stayed this way for three and half weeks. We in the mean time got a new bank and started the process to transfer any necessary transactions to the new bank. During this time our landlord was getting upset since his rent checks were returned for two months and now it was going into the third month with no rent and no real proof of any thing being done to rectify this. I was told by my bank to do "A...B....C" and my money would be refuned to me for the fraudulent charges by the ATM's, never once was there ever discussion of returning the 3200.00 in fees.
After feeling like a circus clown, and jumping through hoops, they denied me because they claim that my pin was used and noone can use an atm with out having my pin or my card so I had to give it to someone. They neglected to hear or see in thier own banking records that the card in question was being used at the same time at two ends of the state that were 30-45 minutes apart from each other. All they could say was that I kept using my card in between transactions at the ATM. OF COURSE I DID, I didn't know that they were using the atm with my card in another city in the same state. When I explained that I could not physically be in two places at once and be using my card at a point of sale store and signing my name at the same time using it at an atm 25 miles away they just said they understood my frustration but had made their decision and would not change it, but offered to look into it again??? For what, if the answer is no then what was the purpose. I got the police report, I got documentation from the branch and the local vendors that proved my wareabouts, what else do I have to do? I just think it is odd that that right after I relinquish my card it stops and they make me do all sorts of things to prove my innocense like I was a criminal and then still deny me my protection they claim to offer. It makes no sense to do this to myself because it almost cost me my home, business and everything else I own. Why would I do this to myself? I am letting everyone in the Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky are not to use CHARTER ONE banks. I did find out that their parent financial institute is the Royal Bank of Sweden. They are the ones who funds Citizens banks and mortgage companies. I think this company is going under and is trying to save their %#@ buy stealing their customers money and then refusing to refund it. Why else would they know not to use their own bank ATM's and why else would they refuse to help their customers out when there is a fraud issue? They are the real frauds. They are selling our information to people for profit and in the process they are giving them access to our accounts.

Beware!!! Don't use ATMS unless it is at your own bank where they can pull video futage and don't use your pin anywhere. Run it as a credit card and sign for it!

Broke in Indiana!

I feel for you Christy. I can't believe your bank responded to you that way. I too was a victim of Atm Fraud. Last October an atm withdrawl was made using my card for $502. Since I never make cash withdrawls for that much I knew it was fraudulent. It was a real hassle calling and following up with the claim with Wamu but they did provision my account with the $502 after over a week went by and finally sent me a letter stating that it was fraudulent and I could keep money they put in the account. So I could finally sleep again.

Then, I checked my account today (late January) and three fraudulent Atm withdrawls for $500, $300, and $500 appeared. Apparently, this time the perp used my wife's card! I should have had them both cancelled when it happened the first time. But now I'm really nervous. If there's some high-tech skimming mechanism set up at some of the local businesses we use, how will we know it isn't still there?

I guess we will resolve to only use our debit card as a credit card so we don't have to enter our pin. Also, Wamu now has email alerts so we set up alerts for any debits of $300 or over.

I spoke with a woman at Wamu's claims dept and asked if they try to get the pics from the atm camera's and aprehend the criminals. She made it sound like they do look at the photos but don't take any action. Frusterating! Does Wamu just eat that money? I guess it's small change for them.

I too got the ATM robbery. Card numbers were taked from a gas station in Woodinville WA. Hint it is a station that does not take credit cards and charges you $ .45 to make a transaction and near some railroad tracks. And the card was swiped inside. US bank paid me all the funds back, $2,125.

I'm researching ATM scam artist and came across this blog. Thanks for sharing your stories everyone. I recently had someone steal $400 cash out of my acct. But here's the thing, I rarely take cash out but I just got a little check and thought I'd get $100. I took it out if a BofA ATM (where I bank) and the next day I check my act online and see that $400 was taken out right after the $100 I took out at the same place. It was at Penn Plaza in NYC and the ATM area had quite a few people around. I took my cash and my card and apparently my ATM session wasn't completed... this is what I'm concluding. Fortunately I didn't have a lot in the acct to begin with but so far BofA have temporarily credited me the $400 and have asked me to sign an affidavit. They shut down both bank cards I had and I received new ones Fed Ex'ed 2 days later. Once they receive and review my affidavit I maybe given the $400 for good. I'm assuming they could pull up the video tape from that day and find the person who did it. It had to have been someone standing close to me. But this is a first for me and it blows. After reading everyone else situations I guess I got off lucky but I have learned a valuable lesson in this as well as from everyone elses stories. Thanks for sharing.