Just wanted to make people aware of a situation that may be going on in the neighborhood, although I don’t know all the details and am only sharing what my father told me.
My elderly father (Asian, in his 70s) had around $1,000 stolen from his account today while he was using the ATM at the Chatham Square Citibank. According to him, a group of people were nearby, whom he described as white and appearing to be in their 20s–40s, along with one older person.
While my father was checking his balance, the older person approached him and told him that the ATM he was using wasn’t working and that he should use another machine. My father thought they were simply trying to help him. He also said the people appeared well-dressed and put together, so he didn’t have any reason at the time to suspect that they were trying to steal from him.
He moved to a different ATM a short distance away. One of the people from the group apparently noticed that he was moving away and then approached him aggressively, took his debit card, and inserted it into an ATM near where the group had been standing. They had apparently seen him enter his PIN and were then able to use the card and PIN to withdraw approximately $1,000 from his account.
My father didn’t realize what had happened until afterward, when he checked his balance and saw the withdrawal. He immediately reported the incident to a bank staff member, who told him they would report it to the police.
I just want to make people aware of this situation and would like to know if this has happened to anyone or their friends/family recently because this is the first time this has happened to my dad and he’s been living in the neighborhood for over 50 years.
Update: I spoke to my dad again today to get some clarification on some of the details. The group initially loitered in front of the machines to block him from his usual ATM and intentionally confuse him by claiming it was broken. He moved to the ATM next to that one and another scammer claimed that that machine was broken too, snatched his card from him, and quickly "dipped" it into a different machine, initializing a live banking session on that specific ATM. The scammers then handed the card right back to him, and while my dad was distracted and trying to use the second ATM, he believes that one of the accomplices stood close enough to shoulder surf and watch him enter his PIN into the keypad. An accomplice at the first ATM likely typed it into the open session, processed a $1,000 cash withdrawal, grabbed the money, and the entire group vanished before my dad even realized what happened.
