I am a frequent visitor to Sosua and have been reading dr1.com for years, although not a member. Untill now, when I read a thread on legal section of dr1.com
http://www.dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30852&page=1&pp=15, and thought I should share my experience with dr1.com readers.
Never before have we had any kind of problems with ATMs in Sosua, untill last July 2003. I have tried to fight this every way possible and have made several claims afterwards, but finally I was left paying the bill of false charges totaling around 550 Euros including commissions to each false withdrawal.
As a warning to other members I would like to share my story of a credit card fraud at ATM (Banco Reservas near Supermercado Playero Viejo, almost opposite of the Restaurant La Gaviota, the 1st ATM on Calle Duarte when coming from Playa Sosua) in Sosua.
I was on vacation in Sosua, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on June 10th –July 07th 2003. On July 5th, I tried to withdraw cash with both of my credit cards (GlobeCard/MasterCard and Diners Club) at ATM of Banco Reservas on Calle Duarte in El Batey, Sosua. I was accompanied at the ATM by my sister who thereby witnessed what happened. Each time the withdrawal attempts were interrupted with a following message appearing on the ATM screen "The requested amount is not multiple of 50, please select another amount". We tried to key in different amounts and with both of my credit cards (each of which to my understanding are multiple by 50: DOP 500, DOP 2000 and DOP 5000). Finally I gave up and we decided to wonder of to a different ATM elsewhere in Sosua. I did not receive any kind of receipts, when I cancelled the transactions, when the machine was only re-running the above ridiculous message on the screen. That was a bit strange, since usually there would have been a receipt saying something like "the transaction was interrupted, your card has not been charged". Not this time!
So there was a very unpleasant surprise waiting for me, when we got home on July 8th and I had a chance to view my credit card statements via Internet. There were several false charges to both of my credit cards (1 x 500 DOP, 6 x 2000 DOP and 1 x 5000 DOP to my Diners Club Card and 2 x 5000 DOP to my GlobeCard (MasterCard)) and to my amazement all of them dated to July 6th and July 7th in the early morning hours ( between 00:00-01:00 AM), when I sure as hell was not even close to any of ATMs in Sosua, and I am totally 110% sure that my credit cards were neither. The false charges totalled altogether 32 500 DOP (about 930 EUR, the exchange rate was then about 34.00 and of course lower when using credit cards) plus commissions about worth of 40 EUR.
I made claims to both of the credit card companies here in Finland. Right after my claim, the GlobeCard Company refunded my credit card the amount of those false charges appearing on my GlobeCard statement (2 x 5000 DOP).
Diners Club Company did not. They faxed me the ATM Activity and Transaction Log Report by company called the ATM Network from England helpdesk, where all of the 8 Diners Club withdrawals dated on July 6th and 7th showed as successful. And no actions were found for my credit card account on July 5th. They stated if I wanted to raise a further claim against the ATM Network, I should be aware of that if they were to find any invalid/denied claim in further investigation, they would charge me 50 USD per invalid claim (claim here meaning each withdrawal as a seperate claim, i.e. 8 separete case of the remaining false charges on Diners Club).
Despite of the imposed conditional fine (total of 400 USD more, if all of the charges were to be found invalid), I decided to proceed with my claim, calling for real proof from the dominican Bank itself. I was given a final decision to my futher claim on September 2003, when one of the remaining 8 claims (fortunately a charge of 5000 DOP) was successful, 7 others denied. They also attached 7 copies of a Sosua bank transaction receipts stating the transactions as successful and for the dates earlier mentioned (July 6th and July 7th). Strangely, they did not comment anything on the 8th withdrawal (actually on the ATM Network log report the last one of the withdrawals dated on July 7th at 00:23 AM) , which was now refunded to my Diners Club account, nor did they attach any receipts relating to it.
Now I was getting really furious! There were still false records on my Diners Club statement worth of 550 Euros, plus now I would have to face the fine of 7 denied claims, 350 USD! Morover, the credit card company literarily forced me to pay up, since they clearly stated I would loose my credit card and futher on have a mark in my credit rating history, if I refused to pay.
After paying I still pursued my case in October 2003, now straight to England office, since Finland office refused to comment my case any further when the "final decision" had been given. And now in April 2004, I received a very confusing email, where several persons stated that they had done everything possible to solve my case and even beyond that. The overall conclusion is that after they have also investigated the audit tapes of the ATM machine in Dom Rep, their decision stands, and to their opinion I have made those withdrawals and received cash (although I have not been to the ATM at the presented times).
After my bad experience, I am all for making a blacklist of the Sosua ATMs, where people have had problems in the past. And now when I read all of the other stories just to find out that I was not even the only one scammed. I will definitely be wiser when coming to Sosua this summer, and try bringing all the needed money in cash, although that might be difficult to predict since I will be staying over a month.
By the way, are there any reliable and safe bank offices in Sosua where I could withdraw cash with my credit cards right on the desk in the bank?
With all this being said, I rest my case...
Enjoy Sosua, but be careful!
Regards,
Hannele from Finland
http://www.dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30852&page=1&pp=15, and thought I should share my experience with dr1.com readers.
Never before have we had any kind of problems with ATMs in Sosua, untill last July 2003. I have tried to fight this every way possible and have made several claims afterwards, but finally I was left paying the bill of false charges totaling around 550 Euros including commissions to each false withdrawal.
As a warning to other members I would like to share my story of a credit card fraud at ATM (Banco Reservas near Supermercado Playero Viejo, almost opposite of the Restaurant La Gaviota, the 1st ATM on Calle Duarte when coming from Playa Sosua) in Sosua.
I was on vacation in Sosua, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on June 10th –July 07th 2003. On July 5th, I tried to withdraw cash with both of my credit cards (GlobeCard/MasterCard and Diners Club) at ATM of Banco Reservas on Calle Duarte in El Batey, Sosua. I was accompanied at the ATM by my sister who thereby witnessed what happened. Each time the withdrawal attempts were interrupted with a following message appearing on the ATM screen "The requested amount is not multiple of 50, please select another amount". We tried to key in different amounts and with both of my credit cards (each of which to my understanding are multiple by 50: DOP 500, DOP 2000 and DOP 5000). Finally I gave up and we decided to wonder of to a different ATM elsewhere in Sosua. I did not receive any kind of receipts, when I cancelled the transactions, when the machine was only re-running the above ridiculous message on the screen. That was a bit strange, since usually there would have been a receipt saying something like "the transaction was interrupted, your card has not been charged". Not this time!
So there was a very unpleasant surprise waiting for me, when we got home on July 8th and I had a chance to view my credit card statements via Internet. There were several false charges to both of my credit cards (1 x 500 DOP, 6 x 2000 DOP and 1 x 5000 DOP to my Diners Club Card and 2 x 5000 DOP to my GlobeCard (MasterCard)) and to my amazement all of them dated to July 6th and July 7th in the early morning hours ( between 00:00-01:00 AM), when I sure as hell was not even close to any of ATMs in Sosua, and I am totally 110% sure that my credit cards were neither. The false charges totalled altogether 32 500 DOP (about 930 EUR, the exchange rate was then about 34.00 and of course lower when using credit cards) plus commissions about worth of 40 EUR.
I made claims to both of the credit card companies here in Finland. Right after my claim, the GlobeCard Company refunded my credit card the amount of those false charges appearing on my GlobeCard statement (2 x 5000 DOP).
Diners Club Company did not. They faxed me the ATM Activity and Transaction Log Report by company called the ATM Network from England helpdesk, where all of the 8 Diners Club withdrawals dated on July 6th and 7th showed as successful. And no actions were found for my credit card account on July 5th. They stated if I wanted to raise a further claim against the ATM Network, I should be aware of that if they were to find any invalid/denied claim in further investigation, they would charge me 50 USD per invalid claim (claim here meaning each withdrawal as a seperate claim, i.e. 8 separete case of the remaining false charges on Diners Club).
Despite of the imposed conditional fine (total of 400 USD more, if all of the charges were to be found invalid), I decided to proceed with my claim, calling for real proof from the dominican Bank itself. I was given a final decision to my futher claim on September 2003, when one of the remaining 8 claims (fortunately a charge of 5000 DOP) was successful, 7 others denied. They also attached 7 copies of a Sosua bank transaction receipts stating the transactions as successful and for the dates earlier mentioned (July 6th and July 7th). Strangely, they did not comment anything on the 8th withdrawal (actually on the ATM Network log report the last one of the withdrawals dated on July 7th at 00:23 AM) , which was now refunded to my Diners Club account, nor did they attach any receipts relating to it.
Now I was getting really furious! There were still false records on my Diners Club statement worth of 550 Euros, plus now I would have to face the fine of 7 denied claims, 350 USD! Morover, the credit card company literarily forced me to pay up, since they clearly stated I would loose my credit card and futher on have a mark in my credit rating history, if I refused to pay.
After paying I still pursued my case in October 2003, now straight to England office, since Finland office refused to comment my case any further when the "final decision" had been given. And now in April 2004, I received a very confusing email, where several persons stated that they had done everything possible to solve my case and even beyond that. The overall conclusion is that after they have also investigated the audit tapes of the ATM machine in Dom Rep, their decision stands, and to their opinion I have made those withdrawals and received cash (although I have not been to the ATM at the presented times).
After my bad experience, I am all for making a blacklist of the Sosua ATMs, where people have had problems in the past. And now when I read all of the other stories just to find out that I was not even the only one scammed. I will definitely be wiser when coming to Sosua this summer, and try bringing all the needed money in cash, although that might be difficult to predict since I will be staying over a month.
By the way, are there any reliable and safe bank offices in Sosua where I could withdraw cash with my credit cards right on the desk in the bank?
With all this being said, I rest my case...
Enjoy Sosua, but be careful!
Regards,
Hannele from Finland