| Author |
Message |
Mug
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Monday, 17 May, 2004 - 01:15 pm: | |
I have recently had a series of unauthorised cash withdrawals from my current account. It turns out that my bank card had been 'cloned'. It's being investigated, but the likely culprit was a card reader on the card slot of the new Barclays cash machine at Forest Hill station.
I was surprised by the sophistication - it's a new machine, so in a rush for the train, I didn't notice anything unusual, but I returned today and it looked different, with traces of glue around the slot. I guess the reader had been stuck on and removed.
Don't get caught out... |
Brian
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Monday, 17 May, 2004 - 01:28 pm: | |
Hello Mug
I am sorry to hear about this. Are the bank refunding the money.? |
bilko
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Monday, 17 May, 2004 - 01:45 pm: | |
they are supposed to have cctv in this area so hopefully they would have caught someone acting suspiciously- have you asked the Council/Railway people? |
Mug
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Monday, 17 May, 2004 - 06:03 pm: | |
The bank has said they will refund subject to checks on how secure my PIN and cards were, etc.
The bank is also dealing with the police for CCTV at the Forest Hill machine, and the locations for the withdrawals.
The bank's fraud people have been very professional, I thought. The new cards will have chips, which help to stop this type of crime.
Thanks for the support by the way. |
JPM
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Monday, 24 May, 2004 - 01:14 pm: | |
We have had some of this in Brighton. An adapter is fitted to the slot that reads the magnetic strip. There is also a camera in the device that can read your finger poking as you tap in the PIN (which surprises me). The police in Brighton advise you to walk away if you think this is happening to you. The gang will not be far away and will be protecting their investment. When this happened to a friend of mine the bank refunded the money without any hassle.
(Well I used to live in SE23 and still visit my mother) |
Kevin
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Tuesday, 25 May, 2004 - 02:07 pm: | |
For more updates on crime patterns and prevention advice in around Central London, please goto
www.westminster.gov.uk/crimeprevention
You will need a westminster post code to subscribe to this free service so use NW1 5PT
mailto:crimeprevention@westminster.gov.uk |
no-one
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Wednesday, 26 May, 2004 - 12:28 am: | |
hi folks,
to at 7:45am today i was at fh station and i had to go to the cashpoint and went up to a new barclays machine.
i thought the card slot looked ok (it stuck out rather than being flush)
to begin with i though it was something to stop the card readers i'd heard about.
but on further investigation IT WAS A CARD READER!!
believe me, it was only my inner geek that realised that something was wrong,so i check and pull it off in my hand!
i walked with it into the station but no one was interested, so i wandered what to do with it, i bunged in my back pocket...
then three guys surrounded me in seconds, put his had in my pocket and they ran off!
it look SO authentic, the plastic matched perfectly, i'm sure LOTS of people would have been fooled!
I called barclays but to be honest they were less than interested, they don't even have a number you can call them on for this kind of thing. |
Mug
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Wednesday, 26 May, 2004 - 11:25 am: | |
Blimey - you were lucky to get away without being attacked!
They took me for £800, and I bet they did it to at least 20 others that day, so we are talking big money.
I can't believe they are doing it at the SAME machine without being stopped.
No-one: did you report this to the police?
Mug. |
on-one
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Wednesday, 26 May, 2004 - 09:01 pm: | |
no i didn't report it to the police, to be honest i don't really want to get THAT involved, i realised after that they could have killed me! lucky im quite big so maybe that put them off!
i did call barclaycard and gave them the time and location of the cashpoint so that may help.
If only i'd have kept it i would have made a website up with the machine showing what it looks like, i really think the banks should do more! |
Mug
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 12:13 am: | |
I agree - after I was done, I had a quick google for pictures of the scanners and the Barclays NCR cash machines seem especially prone.
Am amazed at the banks attitude - I guess this is paid for from their insurance premiums... |
Rosie
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 12:26 pm: | |
The Barclays machine? Or the Abbey One? I'm a financial journalist on the Telegraph - I'll put some calls in |
Gilles
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 01:32 pm: | |
For a journalist you don't seem to be too sharp on research skills. The name "Barclays" is mentioned around 10 times in this thread. Should be a bit of a hint as to which one it was....
My guess? The Abbey one. |
bob
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 01:40 pm: | |
Was that really necessary Gilles? Your point may be valid but did it need to be expressed in those terms? - don't think so. |
Gilles.
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 01:45 pm: | |
Yeah. Bit harsh I guess but I'm having a bad day.
And I can't stand the Telegraph. |
me
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 03:53 pm: | |
Gilles. I realise this , but given that both of them looked odd this morning, and the Abbey machine had a sign saying PLEASE DO NOT ENTER YOUR PIN on it in big letters I thought I had better check. I'm sorry you dislike my newspaper, but I'm just scratching a living like everyone else - and I thought it was an interesting story. Grow up. |
Gilles
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 04:14 pm: | |
Ok, Will do.
PS: In what way did they both look odd? |
Indifferent observer
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 04:42 pm: | |
Wow, there are some overly sensitive people here.
Gilles, at the risk of repeating your faux pas, have you considered looking at the earlier thread to find the answer?:
"i thought the card slot looked ok (it stuck out rather than being flush)
to begin with i though it was something to stop the card readers i'd heard about.
but on further investigation IT WAS A CARD READER!!" |
Gilles
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 04:47 pm: | |
Hi Bob. |
Gilles
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 04:51 pm: | |
Err, yeah and if you'd read on "so i check and pull it off in my hand!"
Thereby removing the oddity. |
Gilles
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 04:53 pm: | |
Err, yeah and if you'd read on "so i check and pull it off in my hand!"
Thereby removing the oddity. |
Gilles
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 04:54 pm: | |
So good an argument I posted it twice! |
Indifferent Observer
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 04:55 pm: | |
But your question was "In what way did they both look odd" not whether it was still there!
Otherwise you could just go and look now. Although by the sounds of it they've probably put it back again already! |
BT
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 05:02 pm: | |
The Abbey machine was targetted today.While I was in the Abbey Branch 2 people came in and reported that their cards had been 'swallowed'.Shortly afterwards the police were there. |
Gilles
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 27 May, 2004 - 05:04 pm: | |
"In what way did they both look odd" SINCE we've been told the card reader had been removed.
Hey, look everybody's gone....Hoo hoo? Anyone here?
Ok guys it was a joke. Come back! |
elizabeth
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Friday, 28 May, 2004 - 12:06 pm: | |
I think someone should let the station staff know, as they currently don't. They might be able to keep an eye out. and if no-one reports these things to the police they can't monitor the situation. Someone needs to put some sort or warning notice up about this sort of thing, as it seems to be a regular occurrence. |
Gilles
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Friday, 28 May, 2004 - 12:54 pm: | |
On a serious note I find it extraordinary that neither station staff nor Barclays seem to be interested in this!
I seriously think on-one should report this to the police. He may even be able to give a description of the culprits.
It's just unbelievable that A) knowing where the events take place B) having notified the bank c) having the luxury of cctv all round the area nobody is interested in catching these guys! |
CB
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Saturday, 29 May, 2004 - 10:14 am: | |
I find this all very disturbing. Self and husband have used various cards in this machine in past few weeks, so have been frantically ringing banks to check we still have some money. Also tried to report what is happening to the police, as it seems to me that if these criminals are regularly targetting these particular machines, it just needs a couple of plain clothes police to monitor the machines and catch these guys. After all, huge amounts of money could be involved. Anyway, having been "on hold" for 25 minutes to the police trying to report goings on, I eventually gave up. So plase could "no-one" GET INVOLVED and stop another victim getting seriously hurt or worse... |
cathy
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Sunday, 30 May, 2004 - 02:31 am: | |
I noticed the card insert bit on the Barclays Bank machine looked partially blocked tonight, as if it had been either damaged by the removal of fake card reader, or blocked by the bank/police as a safeguard until the machine can be fixed.
I've decided to use cash-back in the supermarket rather than risk using any cashpoints, until we know something has been done about this. |
peewee
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Wednesday, 09 June, 2004 - 08:02 am: | |
Check this out:
http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread/t-23585.html |
BT
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Thursday, 01 July, 2004 - 08:09 am: | |
Just to bring this problem to the forefront again. Please be very careful and check that the machine looks OK before you use it. A colleague at work this week had £3000 'removed' from his account. Not in Forest Hill but in a small town in deepest Kent, so its going on everywhere. |
Les
Joined N/A
| | Posted on Tuesday, 06 July, 2004 - 01:50 pm: | |
Looks like this is an increasing problem. Have a look at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3862487.stm |
Selardoor
Joined 03-03-2005
| | Posted on Friday, 04 March, 2005 - 11:38 pm: | |
This is old news but the Barclays Cash Machine has an attachment where you insert the card. I'm sure that this has appeared well after the above notes.
A kind young man at the station warned me just before I was about to take out some money out the other night that it was one of those illegal card reading thingy's. He said that the machine outside of the Barclays Bank opposite didn't have one.
I subsequently went and checked and he was right. The two machines are entirely the same except the machine at the station has a small grey 'box' inserted at the point where you put in your card. It sits almost flush with the face of the machine whereas he other machine at the Bank does not have this and where you put in the card it's concave.
On closer inspection of the machine at the train station I see that this 'additional' device has been tampered with and doesn't look like it was quite designed to fit into the machine. Have a look and let me know what you think?
If it is a part of the machine installed by Barclays then it does raise a question - Why have it only on one machine?
BTW, I've dropped Barclays a note about this to get clarification. |
Adam
Joined 08-01-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, 05 March, 2005 - 02:07 pm: | |
Selardoor
As someone who had around 3k ‘skimmed’ from their current account within 38 hours (over a bank holiday weekend) I totally understand your concerns.
In relation to the ATM at the branch, this will be filled and minor maintenance carried out daily by branch staff, including the cleaning of the used receipts bin next to the machine etc. At the station, whilst it is a Barclay’s machine, it won't be filled nor maintained by Barclay’s staff. It is likely to be a company like Securicor, Brinks or Securitas that will arrive and fill the machine, insert a new receipt roll and take away the printed log of transactions.
The Barclays branch also has CCTV watching the machine which will feed images and sound back to the Barclays CCTV control centre. The CCTV at the station will be owned and operated by Southern Rail, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't watch the Barclays or Abbey machine.
So in essence, because there are no bank staff to maintain the machine at the station, and the lack of CCTV this means this is a rife picking for the criminals. The major amount of ‘skimming’ or ‘cloning’ happens at third party machines (placed in petrol stations, railway/tube stations and in shops) simply because they know the machine might not be visited for a number of days until its time to be refilled again.
Banks also use BT Redcare or similar to remotely monitor the machines for breakdowns etc. A cloning device won’t highlight it as a breakdown or stop the machine working it just increases the number of potential card numbers the thieves can get from the unsuspecting public.
This is a national problem and not just one in SE23, so hopefully the more people who get passed the message the better.
http://flaphead.dns2go.com/blog/archive/2004/10/29 /548.aspx
Gives more details and even has pictures of a Barclay’s machine with a clone reader and one without a cloning device.
Luckily I got my money back from my bank who were very friendly, polite and quite swift. However it is a long process taking over a month, so I wouldn’t wish it on anyone! I would also suggest you bring the matter to the attention of the local Police on 8297 1212, don’t try to remove the suspected reader as they usually have people hanging around the machines and your personal safety is paramount!
Hope this helps.
A |
Selardoor
Joined 03-03-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, 05 March, 2005 - 02:45 pm: | |
Adam, thank you for the information. I didn't mention this in my previous piece but I walked into a police foot patrol not long after this being brought to my attention and I told them the details. We all walked to both machines to validate that it was on one machine (at the station) and not the other (at the bank). They took notes and said that they would follow it up. Because the device is still there then a couple of conclusions suggest themselves. 1) it's a genuine article placed to prevent insertion of card skimmers or 2) it is still being followed up by the police with the devices removal still in train.
The link in your message is very good. The card skimmer in the link is different to the device on the Barclays machine at the station but in photo 1 (a 'clean' machine) it shows what we should expect to see. You'll see that the machine at the station does not look like this anymore.
One other thing I've just noticed is between the screen and the card reader in both pictures is a vertical rectangular device protruding from the machine. These are on most Barclays machines. I wonder what it is? This has been removed from the machine at the station leaving a gaping hole.
Unfortunately, the hole isn't big enough to stick my hand in to get money out (If one was to imagine doing such a heinous thing).
Maybe Kk might see an opportunity to train her pig Disco to fetch £20 notes!!! (see thread 'Can anyone recommend a vet in Forest Hill or thereabouts' for the antics of Disco the asparagus eating, Richard & Judy watching Guinea Pig.) |
Adam
Joined 08-01-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, 05 March, 2005 - 04:18 pm: | |
I think the rectangle you talk about has a key slot at the bottom of it, but i'm not 110% sure! So answers on a postcard!
I think the guinea pig is too drunk on Shiraz to hold up ATM machines :] but stranger things have happened! |
Selardoor
Joined 03-03-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, 05 March, 2005 - 04:31 pm: | |
That Shiraz-pickled pig will most certainly be in Newman's SE23 based sitcom.
(see thread 'Linda Barker and other celeb types in the area' posting by Newman on Friday, 18 February, 2005 - 10:43 am about the pilot for a sitcom set in London's glittering Forest Hill.) |
Adam
Joined 08-01-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, 05 March, 2005 - 04:46 pm: | |
That’s if Newman isn't too pickled himself to write it. These benders at the Hob are tearing him off the rails. I think we as a community need to get an ASBO to stop him in his tracks! (Get it, rails, tracks – after so many posts on the railway!!!!) |
Selardoor
Joined 03-03-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, 05 March, 2005 - 04:53 pm: | |
Oh, someone needs an ASBO taken out on him and it ain't Newman. Is anyone else following my train of thought here? (BOOM! BOOM!) |
Adam
Joined 08-01-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, 05 March, 2005 - 05:03 pm: | |
oh dear! perhaps the key is TRAINing not an ASBO! |
Blobby
Joined 05-03-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, 06 March, 2005 - 09:47 am: | |
Sounds like the best idea is to avoid cash machines altogether... Plenty of places will do cashback now. |
