Skimming solved?
3 women picked pockets or tricked people to get ATM cards:cops
One of the ATM skimming complainants, Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak, identifies 1 of the 3 women arrested yesterday as part of the group behind recent cases; he appeals to banks to be more transparent, give the police all skimming devices found in their ATMs How do they do it? One way is to bump someone in order to pinch their wallet; another is to pretend to help someone who has trouble using an ATM, in order to observe as he or she types the PIN again
QUICK thinking by one of their victims led to the arrest yesterday of three women who allegedly duped some depositors and stole P200,000 of their hard-earned money.
Marlyn Roque, 42, Maria Camille de Vera, 36, and Hanna Reyes, 32, were caught after they allegedly stole the automated teller machine (ATM) and credit cards of some people, whose pockets they picked, and then withdrew their cash.
“They were about to victimize our complainant for the second time when we monitored them together with
our beat patrollers inside a mall last Monday,” said Police Chief Insp. Jacinto Mandal, chief of the Mabolo Police Station.
The women reportedly came from Metro Manila but temporarily stayed in Lapu-Lapu City.
Their arrest may help the police solve a series of ATM skimming cases, after one of the victims identified Roque as the same woman who stole her ATM card and withdrew her savings.
Also, Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak and three other complainants identified the three as part of the group that had deceived victims into leaving their ATM or credit cards with them.
Tumulak showed the three a screenshot picture of the man who withdrew money from the councilor’s ATM account, to ask if he was one of their cohorts.
The three alleged that they didn’t know him.
The complainant who led to yesterday’s arrest— but requested that her name be kept from news reports—said that while she was busy choosing groceries, she noticed that a group of women kept bumping her.
When she reached inside her bag for her wallet, which contained her Visa cards, it was already gone. She saw the women who seemed to be in a hurry to walk away.
She asked for assistance from the mall’s security guards and a police officer, who chased the three and caught them in the parking lot.
Driver fled
They were about to get inside a white multi-utility vehicle when the driver, who was identified only as Cynthia, ran away upon seeing the police chasing the women.
Security and police officers asked Reyes to open her blue Prada bag, and there they found the complainant’s wallet.
In an interview, Mandal said that closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage furnished by the mall in Banilad revealed the women were the ones who also picked the complainant’s pocket around 4:30 p.m. last Nov. 17.
The victim lost a credit card, two ATM cards and cash amounting to P50,000 during that first incident.
Authorities also found out yesterday that Roque was one of the suspects in a series of ATM theft incidents. Another complainant identified her as the one who took her ATM and withdrew money from it.
Part of her balance of P87,000 was also used to buy goods on different occasions.
Four complainants went to the police station following the arrest of the three and identified Roque as the one who was there when they lost their money.
Their methods
A retired Philippine Army colonel said that last July 17, when he was withdrawing money from a bank on Escario St., it took an unusually long time for the ATM to dispense money. (The bank’s name is being withheld until this incident can be confirmed.)
“Di mo- function ang ATM, so nangita ko’g guard. Niduol siya niingon, ‘Parehas ta, niungot pud ako ATM’ (The ATM didn’t function so I looked for a guard. That woman approached me and said, ‘ The same thing happened to me; my card also got stuck),” he said.
Roque offered to help him so he again typed his pin number, but made sure to cover that with his hand.
“But I think she saw my pin number because the next time I knew, P28,000 had been taken from my ATM. I never got the cash that I was supposed to withdraw,” he said.
An employee from a university also shared a similar experience in a mall, when her ATM card also got stuck in a machine around 4 p.m.
Roque, she added, also offered to help her and instructed her to type her pin number.
“It had been an hour but my ATM card wasn’t released yet and she was still outside. So I went home. Later, P34,900 was taken from my card,” she said.
As the complainants pointed to Roque as the one who carted away their ATM cards, she will face charges for violating Republic Act 8484 or illegally using the ATM and credit cards. That will be in addition to the charges of theft that will be filed against her, de Vera and Reyes.
Syndicate?
An estimated P300,000 in cash had been taken from the complainants, the Mabolo chief said.
Mandal advised the public to be wary of their surroundings every time they use ATM or credit cards.
“Police yourself. Put your bags in front of you and don’t just place cards in your pockets. If you sense that someone bumped you in the center of a wide pathway, check your belongings immediately. You might become a victim,” he said.
The Mabolo police recorded at least three persons who lost their ATM cards and one credit card. He encouraged those who lost their ATM cards to visit the Mabolo Police Station to check if they were also scammed.
Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Joel Doria noted that the group was organized and possibly operated as part of a syndicate.
“Dumayo talaga sila dito so definitely we’re conducting a follow-up operation (They came here just to do this),” he said.
Councilor Tumulak also asked the police yesterday to check if any of the banks may have been conniving with those who stole money through ATM skimming.
Transparency
He also asked the banks to be more transparent and urged them to surrender to the police all skimming devices that were found in their ATMs.
Tumulak said that in the three months that unauthorized withdrawals were made, the police have yet to secure a skimming device from the banks.
Tumulak lost an undisclosed amount to ATM skimmers who gained access to his savings in his Land Bank of the Philippines payroll account. The last unauthorized withdrawal from his account was last Nov. 9, when skimmers withdrew P50,000.
On the same day, he discovered that unauthorized withdrawals had been made since September.
If the banks surrender the skimming devices, Tumulak said that technical experts of the police can study these and may be able to come up with measures to counter ATM card skimming.
Tumulak said that banks should also implement additional security measures to protect depositors.
He also noted deficiencies in terms of protecting banks and their clients, since the law enforcement units have been focused on their anti-illegal drug campaign.
“It is our right as depositors to be protected by the banks. I hope they can do that,” Tumulak said.