New twist on ATM robbery

biko

For Galwegians not reading AH:

On Saturday night I NEARLY got robbed of €200 from an ATM in Galway City Centre - (they distract you after you enter your pin and they take €200 from your account while you are distracted), anyway I had spotted the scam and got the €200 euro she withdrew.... You never think it's going to happen to you, ESPECIALLY Galway!

Step One: A person goes to the ATM, inserts the bank card and then keys in the PIN number.
Step Two: Just then, the person is approached by people who wave a magazine in front of his face and blocks the ATM screen and keypad.
Step Three: While the person is distracted one of them, unseen, presses the button telling the machine withdraw €200. The money pops out and is taken swiftly while the account holder is distracted and oblivious to what is happening.
Step Four: Eventually the thief backs off, the person looks at the screen which reads “transaction completed” but sees no money. A later check of their bank balance shows, however, that €200 has been withdrawn.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/?jp=MHKFCWQLKFAU&rss=rss1

If you see someone approaching you with intent a magazine/map/whatever in hand, make sure to tell them where to stick it.
Keep Galway safe and bastard free!

Utopia Parkway

The money pops out and is taken swiftly while the account holder is distracted and oblivious to what is happening.

And this works? Even after you key in the amout of money you want it usually takes a few seconds for the cash to be dispensed. Is someone just waving a magazine in front of your face the whole time?

And how would you be oblivious to it? If someone started waving something right in your face at a cashpoint I think you'd get a little suspiscious that something dodgy was going down.

Then again with a few drinks on you it's easy to see how it could happen.

rabbitinlights

They must target drunk people as I doubt sober people would be that stupid.

Sniipe

rabbitinlights wrote:

They must target drunk people as I doubt sober people would be that stupid.

hehe ^^ and look at biko's location...

evil_seed

i saw this in operation. the guy clocked the attempted robber and called the gardaí. it's gettin popular. looks like romainians

Sniipe

evil_seed wrote:

the guy clocked the attempted robber...

Can you do that and get away with it tho? Robber may press charges...

smackbunnybaby

saw this happen in dublin about 2 weeks ago now and actually meant to start a thread about (maybe i did post it in AH, i can remember)

it was at the outside ATM of the bank of ireland on 6 o'connell street.
there was a queue of people waiting on the ATM, i was the second in line, there was a dublin man ahead of me and a woman currently using the ATM.
I didnt realise at the time but she was probably an alcoholic and plastered trying to get money out on her card.

2 people came upto the line, both foreign, a young man and a much youngerr girl, and started to push magazines on us to buy, i could see they were just
carphone warehouse feebies. so i told them to go away.
next thing i knew they were tapping the woman on the shoulder and prodding her with the magazine trying to get her attention, as soon as she turned her head they started to push the magazines over the keypad so she couldnt see what she was doing. i was really surprised as i hadnt anticipated people would blatently try and and steal from a person at a cash point at 6:30 on a very sunny day.
the dublin fella in front of me told them to f&ck off and they didnt get anything. he turned to me and said that was the new scam to get money and they usuallly prey on drunk people or women who look vulnerable.

my advice to anyway would be, anytime you are taking money from an ATM always have your finger near the cancel button tostop any transaction if you feel there are people too close for comfort.

Sponge Bob

which galway atm ....mainguard street I would suspect strongly .

Anima

This almost happened to me a few weeks ago. I hadn't heard anything about it but luckly my friend came over in time.

What happened to me was I was by the ATM near Supermacs in Eyre Sq., I went up on my own while my friends were off a bit so they thought it was just me. Just as I had finished entering my PIN number, these two little Romanians, a girl probably 14 and a boy around 14/15, start offering me big issue or some bollacks.

At first I was just laughing but then they wouldn't feck off after I was pushing them away. They started waving the magazines over the keypad and the panels then. There was one either side of me so it was impossible to keep track of what the other was doing. The little girl anyway was working the keypad while the boy was distracting me, she was very quick (obviously done it before :rolleyes:) and in no time my card came out.

I initially thought my card was rejected or something (I'm gullible I know) but then all of a sudden money is coming out. My friend came over then and removed the boy so I was looking at the keypad and the girl again. The little b*tch was just standing there with a rabbit in the headlights look on her face, so I just took the money and walked off.

I probably should of done something but I was pretty shocked and didn't want the hassle. Especially seeing as I saw either there older brother or father just around the corner 5 minutes later...

Sponge Bob

the romanians are welcome to eyre sq at night tbh

you should tell the big issue that they are now being used as a front for mugging gangs , see contact details

http://www.unesco.org/most/westeur6.htm

JohnCleary

Last laugh's on them, I can't remember the last time I had 200 in my account

daveg

I cannot believe this works. Here's a real world example of what would happen imo:

Step One: A person goes to the ATM, inserts the bank card and then keys in the PIN number.
Step Two: Just then, the person is approached by people who wave a magazine in front of his face and blocks the ATM screen and keypad.
Step Three: Person waving magazine infront of ATM is punched in the nose and beaten prefusley.

If you see someone approaching you with intent a magazine/map/whatever in hand, make sure to let them wave it in front of the ATM screen then administer a swift right hook to the face.

Keep Galway safe and bastard free![/QUOTE]