Cash machine distraction fraud

We would like to make our residents aware of a recent cash machine distraction that took place on Wednesday 14th January at around 14:40 hours at Tesco Express ATM Plough Green Worcester Park.

The victim had inserted her bank card entering the relevant PIN Code when the machine then retained the card. A male then exited the Tesco store and approached the victim claiming the same thing had happened to him. He then said to enter two numbers on the keypad followed by her PIN which she did. The card did not come back out so he asked for her telephone number stating he would contact the ATM engineer. The victim left to go home to call and cancel her card when she received a call from a male claiming to be the engineer asking her not to cancel her card as he would attend the following day to fix the machine and she would be able to retrieve her bank card. Realising this was suspicious she alerted the bank. In the meanwhile money was taken from her account.

The male was described as ‘Indian’ around 5 foot 10 inches, medium build wearing all dark clothing and a face covering.

Please be mindful of any suspicious persons hanging around ATM cash machines. If similar was to happen to you and the machine retains your card call your bank straight away to cancel the card and whatever you do please do not allow any person to persuade you to enter further numbers or your PIN back in to the machine.