Hotel/Motel Scam

WOW...scary scam, but genius in its simplicity!

i've got one as well: Another member on here experienced this two years go at the Coastal gas station in sosua on the Lord's day: sunday. he pulled up to get gas and went over to the BHD ATM machine. when he put his card in, the machine ate it. he tried in vain to get it out but, could not. a man standing behind him, well dressed, and looking very professional, waited in line. when my friend turned to leave, he told the guy in line "don't put your card in their--the machine is eating cards."

The man pulled out his BHD card and offered to call BHD bank for my friend. after dialing the number, he handed the phone to my friend to talk to the representative. the representative on the phone told him to go back to the machine and try putting his password in three times in succession to see if the machine would spit the card back out. my friend tried this, and after several vain attempts, told the reprsenative that it did not work. she told him, no problem, come back on monday to the gas station to get your card.

When he checked his bank balance online on monday, someone had taken out $1500 in two days (It may have happened on saturday and he didnt check his bank balance until monday. i cant remember if the scam happened on saturday or sunday.) when he contacted his bank, they confirmed that someone had withdrawn $1500 from his account. my friend then spent a lot of time trying to get the bank to reimburse his money. i can't even remember if he got all of his money back from the bank or not. but the genius, or ingeniuty, of the scam was that, when the well-dresses man standing in line pulled out his BHD card and showed it to my friend, and then dialed the phone number on the back (But he really only called his friend who was part of the scam) and handed the phone to my friend, the representative spoke english and everything seemed very legit. my friend just wanted his card back, nothing more, and here was the perfect--albeit conveniant opportunity--to speak directly to a bank representative on saturday or sunday when all of the bank branches are otherwise closed. it could have happened to anyone, including me...and trust me, i've seen a lot of good scams here on this island!


Frank

So how did they get the money out, how did they know his account details?

Just tell the front desk that you will be right down to straighten out they matter

Givadogahome said:

So how did they get the money out, how did they know his account details?

Click to expand...

When the bank represenataive on the phone--(who was really just the well-dressed man's friend on the phone)--told my friend to go back to the machine and input his password into the machine 3 times, the well-dressed man stood behind him watching. remember, the stranger now had three fantastic opportunities to now see what my friend's 4-pin password was.

when nothing happened and my friend gave up and drove away. the well dressed man simply pulled out my friend's credit card/ATM out using tweezers. the card is held in place using x-ray paper which is black and neatly cut and folded and then placed into the ATM card slot. you cannot see it with your eyes unless you got down on your hand and knees and inspected the ATM card slot--there is a youtube video demonstrating how it works or, if you want, i have a copy of the youtube video somewhere on my computer--i can send it to you and you can post it.

Ok, so now, after my friend drives away, using tweezers, anyone can now pull the x-ray paper out of the ATM machine--the paper has caught the ATM bank card and not allowed it to be fed into the machine. the card simply sat in limbo during the whole process about two inches down from the lip of the card entrance. remember, the man had three opportunities to see what my friends 4-pin password was (the banks should change passwords so that they are 7 or 8 digits long to avoid this).


Now the stranger has my friend's 4-pin password and ATM/Visa card and is free to charge things online or withdraw money from his account until my friend either gets his bank statement in the mail or goes online and checks his account. Fortunately, if its only an ATM card and not a Visa/mastercard debit credit card--then they can only withdraw money from an ATM machine and not charge anything online.

Frank

Happend to me last summer: Used my creditcard in a bank in Sosua on the counter. A few weeks later back to home noticed they had drawn the sum twice. Fortunately could still get the whole money back with no problems, just sent an email to the company who gave me the card. Scam or not, after that I use only ATM in DR (its also faster).

Phone scams should be a thing of the past, but they obviously are still doing business as people are falling for them. ATM scams are unlucky.

always follow the "the golden rule". To keep your "gold" NEVER give account info or personal ID info to anyone who calls you... ONLY to those YOU CALL. (Same with internet contacts... never to site links sent to you .. (including banks, paypal, amazon, etc etc)... only when you type in the url in your browser.

jinty05-this sounds very strange, as if the front desk clerk was in on the scam.

How would anyone know to ring your room the second you walk in if it's not an inside job?

Berzin said:

jinty05-this sounds very strange, as if the front desk clerk was in on the scam.
How would anyone know to ring your room the second you walk in if it's not an inside job?

Click to expand...

It could be someone who is waiting in the lobby, or behind you when your checking in. Then it's a room to room call after he's either followed you to the area where your room is, or heard it at the front desk. The latter is easy when you consider the reception person usually says out loud your room #, and that you need to take the elevator to a certain floor.