Why would a cashpoint eat my card

m0rgana

Hi folks

I live in a 'dodgy area', so am perhaps more worried about this than I would be had it happened elsewhere, but it's still odd and I wondered if anyone here had had a similar thing happen.

I went to take out some cash at a local machine, and when i put my card into the slot, it seemed the machine was really 'struggling' to pull it in. It's a brand new cashpoint installed a week ago and I hadn't used it before, so I don't know how it normally looks or if there was anything 'odd' about it.

I entered my pin (once), asked it to give me £10 and waited, but nothing came. I was there for a good five minutes or so afterwards but neither my £10 nor my card were dispensed.

Could it have been tampered with? I DID notice when I looked closely at the card slot afterwards that it had flexible plastic inside - hard to describe but a bit like the rubber bits on some letterboxes. It seemed to 'fit' inside the machine so did not appear immediately dodgy, but I also don't think I've seen one like it before so perhaps it was.

I immediately cancelled my card and called the non-emergency police number. The police since called me to say they'd inspected the machine and it all looked normal - but that it had taken them two hours to come and look at it after i'd called. They couldn't guarantee it had not been dodgy at the time when I used it however...the bank also confirmed that £10 had been removed from my account (and they're refunding it) which seems odd if it was a machine fault (to me, perhaps I'm wrong)

What does this sound like to you - fraud or malfunction?

alanq

As only £10 was taken, unless that was all you had in your account, I would imagine malfunction.

Yesterday's BBC Radio 4 You And Yours discussed the cat and mouse games between the ATM designers and thieves.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r9wcl 9m25s in.

Recommendation to cover hand as keying in PIN. Very few people do so at ATMs.

jonesMUFCforever

Reasons why a car might get eaten? 1 ATM malfunction 2 Bent card 3 Lost card 4 Stolen card reported 5 Replaced card where replaced one is sitting on your mantelpiece instead of your pocket! 6 A skimming device to hold onto the card.

As you have advised bank of the loss of your card it is of no use to any scammer.

Vortigern

Could it have been a Lebanese Loop - as seen on a recent TV program about such scams. The link above is to Wikipedia. Google will find pictures, video and more details. All a criminal could want!

PaulW922

Many newer ATMs do take your card in very slowly - it looks like it is a bit of an effort - I don't think you need worry about this- it is inconvenient but you should not have to wait long for a new card