Left penniless by cashpoint scam (From Barry And District News)

Left penniless by cashpoint scam

A BARRY woman has been left penniless after her bank account was cleaned out by fraudsters using a cashcard cloning scam.

Julie Dood, a 34-year-old nursery nurse from Victoria Road had her £600 account emptied and her £1,000 overdraft used to the limit after using a Cardiff cashpoint.

Now South Wales Police have issued a strong warning to the public amid fears that the criminals could strike again.

Officers believe that the gang, who used sophisticated cloning devices attached to cashpoint machines, could move through the area cheating thousands of residents.

And that they may already have the details of hundreds of customers' accounts.

Detective Constable Terry Stevens told the News: "This is a very sophisticated way of accessing account details and there is a great deal of concern about it.

"The criminals are able to copy the details of the cash cards from the magnetic strips and programme them onto the strip of a donor card which can be used to withdraw money."

Ms Dodd said: "The past week has been an absolute nightmare. My bank account has been emptied, my overdraft used up and I have no money to live on.

A total of £1640 was withdrawn from Julie's account over several days and she is still waiting for confirmation that the money will be reimbursed.

The hi-tech devices, which allow criminals to clone debit and credit cards, were discovered for the first time in south Wales last month.

The device, which is attached to the card slot of the machine, works by recording the details on the magnetic stripe of the card as it passes through.

The PIN number is then obtained either by someone watching as the ATM is being used or by secret camera equipment.

The criminal can then create a copy of the card by removing the device and using a lap top computer to download the information on to any card with a magnetic strip such as a store card.

Detective Constable Stevens added: "Be wary if the card slot on the ATM seems unsecured or protrudes unusually, or if there is anything unusual attached to it that wasn't there before."