Beware of fraudsters

ON SATURDAY, July 1 at 1.30pm I was attempting to withdraw cash at the Standard Bank ATM, corner of Main and St Johns Rd in Sea Point, when a fraudster distracted me.

He had somehow managed to see me enter my pin before suddenly interrupting me and, with remarkable slight of hand unseen by me, extracted my card telling me the machine was faulty and I should wait for my card to be ejected.

When no card appeared I became suspicious so asked a nearby lady (with a young daughter) if I may borrow her phone to call the Visa fraud line to block the card (my UK phone does not recognise local numbers).

In my distressed state, I omitted to ask this kind person her name, but would like to hereby thank her for her patience and valuable help, while I explained the situation to the phone operator. I was then put on hold listening to music for quite a while before finally getting the UK card blocked.

My bank has since contacted me with news that, within 20 minutes, the thief had fraudulently withdrawn R2 000 from an ATM, but a further R25 200 purchase from a Waterfront store had been blocked.

There is a security guard at these ATMs but the thief took his opportunity while the guard visited the toilet. It is obvious that this was a very a slick professional fraud operation and ATM users need to be extremely wary.

A big thank you to the very kind lady that helped a bewildered visitor to Cape Town.