Lessons from teacher’s robbery at ATM

RETIRED teacher Narayanan Pakiry walked up to the Standard Bank ATM at the Mount Edgecombe Plaza last Friday morning to make a cash withdrawal.

Within seconds off Pakiry withdrawing his money, a man grabbed his cheque card from his hand and fled.

Minutes later a withdrawal of R3 000 was made from a nearby shopping centre.

Pakiry, of Phoenix, was yet another victim of ATM fraud, an on-going problem in South Africa.

His daughter, Dineshree, said the incident had left her father feeling violated.

“A friend of mine witnessed what happened to my dad and assisted him by calling the Standard Bank customer care line.

“The consultant blocked his card, but the robber managed to withdraw cash from an ABSA ATM at another shopping centre.

“Hoping for assistance, my dad and friend looked for a security guard but there was none in sight. My father was shocked by the incident and drove back home,” she said.

Dineshree said when she tried to contact centre management to lodge a complaint and to enquire why there were no security guards present, all the numbers continued to ring.

She did not report the incident to police because she felt nothing would be done to assist them.

Another victim, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had keyed in his pin at the First National Bank (FNB) ATM in the same area, and when the first two digits of his pin became visible, he knew something was amiss and removed his card.

Card

“I entered my card for the second time and the same thing happened. While taking my card out of the machine, a welldressed man approached me and said the ATM had a new system.

“He started pressing random digits on the key pad. I told him to leave me alone, and when I tried to retrieve my card it was swallowed by the machine.

“The man fled the scene. No money was taken.”

Paul Nundhkumar, an administrator for Wakefields Property Management, the company in charge of managing the shopping complex, said the company in charge of security said theywere not aware of any recent incidents.

Nundhkumar said the last incident was a few months ago and those perpetrators were arrested.

CEO of the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) Kalyani Pillay said ATM fraud remained prevalent and consumers were urged to not accept assistance from anyone at an ATM.

“SABRIC encourages consumers to report all crime to SAPS, and while we understand that consumers are hesitant to become involved in court processes, we believe that it is of paramount importance to report these cases.”

Police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker said it was important for all incidents of crime to be reported to police so they could deploy their police officers according to crime threat and crime pattern analysis.

“If incidents are not reported, then it will not give us an indication of the real depth of the problem, and it will render our strategies ineffective,” said Naicker.