Yesterday morning I came to the aid of a rather distressed lady at the ATM outside the Post Office on Brockley Rise - she had tried to withdraw cash and the machine had neither dispensed the cash or returned her card. Her card was just visible and I quickly spotted that something fake had been fitted over the area where you insert your card.

I scanned the area around the ATM and spotted straight away a rather "dodgy" looking character hanging around with an accomplice. Presumably waiting for his next victim to walk away and leave their card and cash for him to collect!

The lady's husband brought his tools and removed the offending piece of plastic which was a very crudely made item with part of a cigarette packet stuck at the back of it! The lady retrieved her card safely and called her bank which confirmed her attempt to withdraw the cash had gone through. She arranged for her card to be cancelled and the money to be recredited to her account.

I called the Bank of Ireland who provide the ATM facilities at the Brockley Rise Post Office and they confirmed the machine had been disabled.

Meanwhile the dodgy chap and his accomplice moved off empty handed looking rather disgruntled.

I could find no evidence of hidden cameras but as a rule of thumb would recommend always checking around the ATM screen for anything unusual and in particular anything that has been stuck on. The item used yesterday was very crude but would have been obvious to the trained eye - there was glue everything and it did not sit flush over the real card entry point.

Please take care everyone - apparently this is the 2nd time in recent months this scam has been carried out at the Brockley Rise ATM.

http://www.met.police.uk/cgi-bin/htsearc...s+site.y=9

useful leaflet from the met website - sorry can't copy it to here

This particular ATM seems to be tampered with nearly every weekend. A real pain in the backside