South African Cashpoint Fraud
A friend recently returned from holiday in South Africa and when checking her Bank account found that over £2,000 had been withdrawn from a series of cashpoint machines in Johannesburg, a City that she never visited.
She banked with the Nationwide and credit to them because once she contacted their fraud department the whole mess was cleared up within 2 weeks, and all the stolen money was re-credited to her account. Incidentally, The Nationwide is a great bank to open an account with because it has the cheapest foreign withdrawal charges alongside offering very competitive rates of currency exchange.
Many people open an account with The Nationwide and only fund it when they go on holiday.
Use This Simple Cashpoint Anti Fraud Trick To Safeguard Your PIN
Unfortunately for her she isn't a subscriber to the LearnMoney newsletter otherwise she would have read in last month's issue a simple and very effective trick to safeguard against this kind of cashpoint fraud - Article here
In order to get a result the fraudster has to copy both the magnetic strip on the back of the card AND get hold of the PIN number. One without the other won't work. Usually a very small hidden camera is used to get hold of the PIN so always use your spare hand to closely shield the hand that's typing the number in.
Here are some pictures of how this fraud might work which we found on a website. Make sure you look at 'examples 3' because it's a slightly different twist which we hadn't ourselves been aware of -
Another good tip is to use Cash Point Machines in busy shopping centres because good 24hr security is normally in operation.
Hiring A car On Holiday - Watch Your Credit Card Statements The Following Month
Our friend who went on holiday also reported a sneaky trick that apparently is very common when hiring a car.
- She hires the car through Avis
- Picks it up, drives around for a week or so and then returns it in good condition
- No accidents, no crashes, no scratches etc
- Then, a month later two payments for around £35 each appear on her credit card statement from Avis
She contacts her credit card company to look into the matter and things are still ongoing but whatever the case this trick seems to be very common with ALL car hire companies so watch out. What we'd suggest is that these businesses with their policy of greater profits at all costs are billing clients for extra unwarranted monies because they know full well that only a small percentage of customers will either realise or be bothered to do anything about it.
But we'd hazard a guess that those who do put up a fight and stand their ground have a very good chance of getting their money back so don't let them get away with this kind of unfair behaviour.
ID Fraud - It's Not As Much A Problem As Some Would have You Believe
We've long suggested that ID crime and fraud is not as serious as many would have you believe. A lot of financial firms such as the Credit Card companies are now selling very expensive anti ID fraud insurance policies (which many view as totally worthless) and so it's their interest to try and scare as many people as possible.
Also, ID fraud makes a good and marketable story as the thought of someone walking around as you is slightly sinister.
Whatever the case recent figures just released put the total value of this fraud at £30.5million in 2005 and £31.9million in 2006. Hardly figures associated with major crime in our opinion. If you do want a simple, free and excellent anti ID theft strategy for yourself check out this article in last month's newsletter - Free ID Theft Insurance.
