Walking down the high street with friends on Saturday, we heard an elderly gentleman at a cash machine shout: ‘My card! They’ve taken my card!’
He had put his credit card into the ATM, entered his pin number and was about to withdraw £100 when a man came up behind him and said ‘The machine isn’t working’ and cancelled the transaction.
Somehow in the commotion, the thief took the card out of the machine and pocketed it before the elderly gentleman knew what was going on.
Armed with the card, and the gentleman’s pin number – which he had presumably read over his shoulder – the thief slipped off to plunder as much as he could from the account.
Dangers: Some fraudsters sit in wait to watch people enter their pin number at ATM machines
It was only when the thief had disappeared that the gentleman realised his card was gone.
He was visiting from France for the weekend, so the gentleman was left in a different city with no bank card, no sterling – just some euros in his pocket, no way of paying his hotel bill, and without the details of his bank in France.
Furthermore he knew that the thief was out there, no doubt at that very moment visiting ATMs to withdraw as much money as he could before the card was cancelled.
It was a race of the thief versus the gentleman – how much money would be taken out before the card was cancelled.
The gentleman was understandably flustered. My friend took out pounds to swap with his euros, so that at least he had some currency. Then we walked him to his hotel and phoned the police.
The police were kind, took down all the information and promised to do what they could. But they were not at all surprised to hear of the scam. They’re seeing growing numbers of tricks, always evolving to catch people out.
They told us of another scam whereby a scruffy man will approach a tourist and hassle them.
Almost immediately after two more men will show up, claiming to be plain-clothes policemen. They’ll say something like ‘Is this man bothering you?’, or warn them that the scruffy man is trying to trick and rob them.
The ‘policemen’ will say – ‘quick, check your wallet to make sure he’s not taken anything’ – then take the wallet themselves under the pretence of helping them to make sure everything is in order. The pretend police officers then hand back the wallet and it is only when they have walked off and disappeared around a corner that the tourist will realise most of their money is missing from it.
In another scam, a criminal will come up to their victim with a map asking for directions. They’ll put the map above their victim’s bag so that it’s out of sight. Then while the victim is kindly looking at the map to help out, the criminal will take the wallet or phone or whatever they can get their hands on.
It was frightening hearing all the clever tricks that criminals use. At This is Money we always write about the latest scams we hear about so that if they are tried out on you, you can spot and not fall for them.
But what it made me realise is that while this is great protection against fraudsters, there will be times when no matter how prepared you are, you can still fall for something.
So as well as being savvy to fraud, it can be as important to be prepared just in case you should fall prey.
Take for example this elderly gentleman.
The theft itself, while upsetting, would probably have made little financial damage to the gentleman. Since he reported the theft straight away, there is a good chance his bank would have refunded him the stolen money.
The real inconvenience came from things that with a little planning, the gentleman could have helped to mitigate.
Dangers: Despite our learned wariness, many people are still caught out making simple everyday transactions
He had no back-up card, so had no money for the rest of his trip until he returned to France the following afternoon. He had no money to pay his hotel bill, so was reliant on their goodwill to let him stay that night and pay the bill once he got back to France.
He didn’t know the phone number of his bank so there was some delay while we worked out what it was. Furthermore, he knew that his bank branch would be shut due to a public holiday on the Monday for the next three days – leaving him without access to funds until then.
When he finally got through to his bank, he learned that thankfully the criminal had tried to withdraw £900 from his account, but had got the pin wrong so the card had been cancelled.
So how would you manage if you fell victim to a scam?
Would you have an alternative card to use? Would you know what to do and who to contact first?
Of course banks will not always just refund money taken by scammers – in fact they are increasingly resistant to doing so. But there are a few things you can do to make sure that if you are targeted you have a greater chance of getting your money back.
Don’t give away your pin to anyone, no matter what excuse they give for needing it, or who they say they are.
Think twice before approving any transactions – if you do so your bank may argue it was your fault and deny you a refund.
And finally just take a deep breath. A common theme among scams is confusing the victim or making them flustered so they are less likely to think straight.