Wrexham Hit By Card Cloning Scam

Picture copyright of InfoCash on Flickr.

People in Wrexham have been hit by a card cloning scam which in some instances has seen hundreds of pounds stolen from their bank accounts.

Wrexham.com follower Richard Jones sent a tweet to our @wrexham twitter yesterday saying that he had heard of three incidents where people have had their cards cloned after withdrawing money from Wrexham town centre cash points. Within hours we received several reports from other people in the town who had either had their cards cloned or knew of someone who had. In each instance money had been withdrawn from the victims’ accounts by someone in America and in most cases specifically by someone in New York.

Rob Edge from Johnstown had £700 stolen from his HSBC account by someone in America after he used several cash machines in the area.

He said: “HSBC phoned me up on Sunday evening to say that they had noticed several transactions which looked suspicious. They went through them and £700 had been taken from my account over the space of a few days by someone in America.

“The bank didn’t say where specifically the money was withdrawn from in America, but when I saw the tweet to Wrexham.com about people having money taken by someone in New York it all seemed like too much of a coincidence.”

After going through the transactions with him thankfully HSBC were able to reimburse Rob with the stolen money.

He said that the bank machines he used recently included the machine outside Alliance and Leicester on Hope Street and the ones outside Snax 24 and the Post Office in Johnstown, although he didn’t notice anything suspicious at any of them.

“I just feel angry and surprised as you don’t expect it to happen to you” he added.

Rob Davies who works in Wrexham reported a similar incident, he tweeted us to say: “I work in Asda and a customer told me that she had her card details used in Brooklyn NY recently, very very odd!”

Emma Birrell said: “My aunty had hers cloned. She only has a cash card (not chip & pin). Only recently used it at Tesco (Wrexham) and a bank in Chirk.”

Banks do usually refund the stolen money, however that does not compensate for the hassle caused and often is the end of the matter. Wrexham.com is aware of two incidents, one of identity theft and one of card cloning, where when it was attempted to be reported to the police at Wrexham Police Station they “did not want to know”.

This is a common trend with police forces, however in not recording this type of crime the problem is not quantifiable with the banks understandably wishing to play down any issues. This is reflected in a freedom of information request to North Wales Police which recorded zero crimes of ‘skimming’ for four consecutive years, and the one year with data (31 instance) no arrests were made.

Wrexham.com would advise:

• Check your statements every so often and keep an eye out for odd transactions.
• Looking out for ‘test’ purchases of low amounts can indicate a possible future fraud attempt.
• Check cash points for anything that looks suspicious – and report it if you see anything!
• Cover your PIN as you enter it.
• Do not accept help or distractions from people around cash points.
• Do not let your card leave your sight, get people to bring payment machines to you.
• Try and report the incidents to the police, and persist if they refuse to take notice!