How was my debit card cloned ?

[daveza]

To summarise...

I tried to pay a few hundred rand for groceries at a supermarket which for now will be nameless.

It was declined.

Took it to ATM in the supermarket and R4500.00 had been withdrawn over two days at a Saswitch ATM -last weekend.

My card had not been anywhere but inside my wallet.

Reported it to ABSA, spent an hour at police station, have a case number and now have a case file at SAPS and the bank.

Now....when asked where last I had used the card it was the very same supermarket. On hearing this the lady at the bank raised her eyebrows and said ' not another one '. Apparently they have many similar cases where the last place of use was at the cashiers of this supermarket.

When I pay I hand the cashier my card, she swipes it through the machine, asks cheque or savings then turns the machine to me to put in my pin.

How is it possible to clone my card - and then use it - obviously with my pin which I always cover up on input ?

I have written to the supermarket and asked them in light of the apparent high incidence of card cloning at this outlet what they have done about it - we shall see what the response is.

So, is it possible to get the pin from a debit card by swiping it, and how did they do it without me seeing ?

 

[MikeKnight]

Why keep the super market nameless let is know so we don't get our cards cloned.

 

[daveza]

Because for now I don't have cast-iron proof it was them.

If or once I do, I shall announce it very loudly.

 

[MikeKnight]

Sounds good, just a little fishy that even the bank is noticing it happening at that market!

From what I have herd they place a small magnetic strip on the inside of the machine where they would swipe and as the swipe the machine reads the cars and the stripe copies.

The only thing is your ping. Maybe the teller has sneaky eyes?

 

[daveza]

So the pin is not on the magnetic strip ?

 

[wily me]

To summarise...

I tried to pay a few hundred rand for groceries at a supermarket which for now will be nameless.

It was declined.

Took it to ATM in the supermarket and R4500.00 had been withdrawn over two days at a Saswitch ATM -last weekend.

My card had not been anywhere but inside my wallet.

Reported it to ABSA, spent an hour at police station, have a case number and now have a case file at SAPS and the bank.
............?

It happened to me not to long ago. IMHO there are inside "agents" that must be cooperating with this whole scam as I did not have much in the bank and only when a big deposit was made into the account a total of near R20000.00 was withdrawn over a long weekend, R5000.00 before 12PM and R5000.00 after 12PM *3 times plus some goods at stores. In the query at the bank they analysed all transactions with my account and there was no checks of balances and neither any declined withdrawals. The card was last used a week prior to this incident at a supermarket. So how did these crooks know that the funds were paid in and how did they know my withdrawal limit? I did get my money back a month later but as a result of this crime every time I get a major deposit and start withdrawing funds the account get locked by the fraud department until they get hold of me or I query the locked account just to make sure the transactions are legit.

 

[daveza]

Was this the same bank ?

and on what grounds did you get your cash back ?

 

[wily me]

Was this the same bank ?

and on what grounds did you get your cash back ?

Standard bank. I laid a claim at the bank. When investigating they apparently can see from the transaction codes and details that it was definitely a cloned card used and not the original. It was not a chipped card like I have now, not sure if that would make a difference.

 

[MikeKnight]

So the pin is not on the magnetic strip ?

No pin is only saved on the chip with chipped credit cards and this is encrypted they wouldn't be able to get this from the card.

But on that note remember some of the old machines that swipe and don't have the chip input and can still be swiped without a pin being entered.

So they could easily have copied the card excluding the chip and swiped it on one of the older machine which would not have asked for a pin.

 

[Nicci]

DaveZA - please when you know let us all know which supermarket it is - I dont want to fall prey to something like this.

 

[wily me]

DaveZA - please when you know let us all know which supermarket it is - I dont want to fall prey to something like this.

It may happen at any supermarket or unsupervised ATM. That the problem, banks do not know how to deal with the problem. The best would be if they use the "One Time Password" via cell concept like with internet banking, but even that get scammed with the inside "agents" help.

 

[Nicci]

Maybe fingerprint ID would be a better idea - then have a scan thingy go over your fingers and then you can do your transactions.

 

[daveza]

Reading between the lines, it seems that syndicates ' get ' someone employed as a cashier in order to do just this.

It may be just urban myth but these days it would not surprise me if it wasn't.

 

[MikeKnight]

Maybe fingerprint ID would be a better idea - then have a scan thingy go over your fingers and then you can do your transactions.

Problem with this is they start taking your fingers it happens in Germany.

 

[Jola]

They can clone any card with a magnetic strip, even one with a chip in it.

If you want to avoid skimming you must scratch off the magnetic strip - but then your card won't work in an ATM.

My Standard Bank Card has the magnetic strip scratched off.

 

[wily me]

Reading between the lines, it seems that syndicates ' get ' someone employed as a cashier in order to do just this.

It may be just urban myth but these days it would not surprise me if it wasn't.

Call me paranoid but since the incident I cover the complete keyboard and my fingers when entering the pin. Let it look like it looks I do not care. Cameras placed strategically as well as miniature spy-cams at ATM's are apparently the main culprit for determining the pin I was told.

 

[medicnick83]

Do you not get notifications whenever money is put in or taken out of your account?

This would've helped in stopping this earlier.

 

[wily me]

Do you not get notifications whenever money is put in or taken out of your account?

This would've helped in stopping this earlier.

Now yes, then no!

 

[daveza]

No - but that will change

It would have saved me half what was taken.

 

[Jings]

If you still using the default pin issued, change it. Standard Bank staff have access to default pin information. In some cases cash is withdrawn before a customer collects their new card.