ATM card woes
IHAVE an admission. I am ignorant re: online bank transactions, making me clueless as to why I lost thousands in my ATM bank account in Metrobank last October 23. I have already filed my complaint, but a staff member in its Capitol branch told me that based on their experience, the answers would be given to me in two to three months. That’s a long period of waiting so I did my own probing.
My story began when the bank replaced my old ATM card. This was one with an EMV chip instead of the traditional magnetic stripe. This supposedly lessens the chances of the holder being victimized by skimmers. I actually used the old card without problem for I think a couple of years, but the change was necessary. When the bank activated my new card, that was when the problem cropped up.
I am obsessed with budgeting my money to make sure I won’t be caught without cash to use during emergencies. And to ensure that I won’t be victimized by scammers, I lessen my dealings with the new technology to only withdrawing money using my ATM card. I don’t even have a credit card, noting how some of my friends have been victimized by hackers. In that sense, I am technology- deficient.
Unknown to me, transactions that reached about a hundred with money ranging from P60 to P183 to P463 were deducted from my ATM card in just a matter of one day ( Oct. 23). When I withdrew money from an ATM machine in a mall in the south the next day, to my surprise the machine retained my card. I rushed to the bank branch that owned the ATM machine and was told my card would be retrieved the next day. But before I could get my ATM card the next day, my son received a call from the Metrobank branch and was told that they have found problems with my “new” ATM card and that I needed to sort things out personally with them. There, a bank employee told me that their head office had blocked my ATM card. I then told her that an ATM machine had already retained the same card. “It’s probably because the card was already blocked when you made the transaction,” she explained.
She proceeded to replace the “new” ATM card with another new one. When the newer card was finally activated and I did a bal- ance inquiry, to my utter surprise the money that remained in my account was a lonely P50. I waited for another day to make sure but still the balance inquiry showed P50. That was when I checked with the Metrobank branch.
When I went there, I was shown those bank transactions that ate up my savings. This must not have been skimming because no skimmer would make transactions in the P60s, P100s and P400s, I told the bank employee. But she also didn’t know why. It was only yesterday when we were discussing that case at the cemetery that my eldest told me about a Google play transaction sent through my email. So there it was, Google play transactions in one day using a Mastercard that I do not possess.
Will I get back my money? I don’t know. How did this happen? Again, I don’t know. As I said, I am ignorant on this one. But one thing is sure. This incident has affected my finances the past several days now. The problem is, I will have to wait for two to three months before the bank can thresh this out. Pastilan.