Young man targeted by thief at the ATM cautions residents

Pay attention to who is in the bank with you at the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and ensure that you sign out and close all transactions.
These may sound like obvious ‘do’s’ but it’s a reminder coming from a 24-year-old nursing school student who was robbed of $1,000 due to a few seconds of absentmindedness.
The man, whose name is withheld on request to protect him from being targeted, said that you can never remind people too much about safety.
“Before you move away from the ATM, make sure it is properly closed down and that you properly exited it before moving off,” he said.
He said on November 8, he went to a particular bank to deposit money and he used his ATM card to make a request for the envelope he needed for the transaction.
“Now, they are asking you to push in your card and pull out and then do the transaction. It is not like before when you put in the card, you leave the card in the ATM and as soon as you’re finished you take out the card and then get your money and it goes back to the original screen and everything ends automatically,” he said, as he explained the system at the bank he uses.
Within a matter of seconds, when he turned away to fill out the details on the envelope to deposit the money, someone who was lurking in the ATM area, snuck up and withdrew $1,000 from his account via the ATM.
The young man said he didn’t really find it strange that someone came up after him to use the machine, but said he had noticed the person was standing around and he was suspicious for a moment.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)