ATM Problem Scotia Bank Sosua

Thebes

New member
Jun 18, 2004
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Hello, I wanted to post on here quickly so that others might avoid trouble at this machine. I am pretty sure that what happened was an orchastrated theft and not just a random glitch.

At about 6:45 pm on the 31st I tried to punch out money with my ATM card, which I do fairly often from this machine and a few others in Sosua at different banks. I have never had any trouble before.

Near the end of the transaction the screen blanked and started faintly flashing as the machine made counting noises. Then it restarted, and I saw the reboot messages like one sees with a computer. This repeated several times and then the screen just started flashing faintly like it had no signal. Later we went by the machine and it was back up.

Anyway, I THINK, don't know for sure, that someone was remotely powering off the ATM when in finished counting. It retained my card and cash. None of the lights around the ATM lost power, the machine just kept rebooting. We waited around 20 minutes nearby and there was of course no one from the bank around. My account appears to have been debited for the money.

So, probably, I think its a good idea to avoid this machine for a while and be on the lookout for a scam like this.

Also, if anyone knows someone with Scotia Bank, please PM me. It would be nice to have some contact in case they aren't helpful in resolving this matter Monday morning.
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
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514
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Scotia is a pretty staid institution

As long as you are there very early on Monday Morning, I am betting that it will be resolved very quicky.

Please post the results of your visit on Monday.

Happy New Year.

HB
 

BushBaby

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Jan 1, 2002
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Hi Thebes,
We used to know someone who worked in the Puerto Plata branch & who most likely still dies. He will have been with them for some 14 years or more now so should be reasonably influential by now.

If your visit to Sosua branch on Monday is not as successful as you would like, give me a call & I'll try to locate my contact & we can go see him.

Happy New year to you & Twilight, .... I Trust we are still seeing you both tomorrow?? ~ Grahame.
 

DominicanScotty

On Vacation!
Jun 12, 2004
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Thebes said:
Hello, I wanted to post on here quickly so that others might avoid trouble at this machine. I am pretty sure that what happened was an orchastrated theft and not just a random glitch.

At about 6:45 pm on the 31st I tried to punch out money with my ATM card, which I do fairly often from this machine and a few others in Sosua at different banks. I have never had any trouble before.

Near the end of the transaction the screen blanked and started faintly flashing as the machine made counting noises. Then it restarted, and I saw the reboot messages like one sees with a computer. This repeated several times and then the screen just started flashing faintly like it had no signal. Later we went by the machine and it was back up.

Anyway, I THINK, don't know for sure, that someone was remotely powering off the ATM when in finished counting. It retained my card and cash. None of the lights around the ATM lost power, the machine just kept rebooting. We waited around 20 minutes nearby and there was of course no one from the bank around. My account appears to have been debited for the money.

So, probably, I think its a good idea to avoid this machine for a while and be on the lookout for a scam like this.

Also, if anyone knows someone with Scotia Bank, please PM me. It would be nice to have some contact in case they aren't helpful in resolving this matter Monday morning.


My gosh, please take the advice of people here and go into this branch. Perhaps they have no knowledge that this is happening...perhaps they do. Thanks for telling me about this as I use this same machine often!
 

Snuffy

Bronze
May 3, 2002
1,462
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I read somewhere of a scam...........

Thebes said:
Hello, I wanted to post on here quickly so that others might avoid trouble at this machine. I am pretty sure that what happened was an orchastrated theft and not just a random glitch.

At about 6:45 pm on the 31st I tried to punch out money with my ATM card, which I do fairly often from this machine and a few others in Sosua at different banks. I have never had any trouble before.

Near the end of the transaction the screen blanked and started faintly flashing as the machine made counting noises. Then it restarted, and I saw the reboot messages like one sees with a computer. This repeated several times and then the screen just started flashing faintly like it had no signal. Later we went by the machine and it was back up.

Anyway, I THINK, don't know for sure, that someone was remotely powering off the ATM when in finished counting. It retained my card and cash. None of the lights around the ATM lost power, the machine just kept rebooting. We waited around 20 minutes nearby and there was of course no one from the bank around. My account appears to have been debited for the money.

So, probably, I think its a good idea to avoid this machine for a while and be on the lookout for a scam like this.

Also, if anyone knows someone with Scotia Bank, please PM me. It would be nice to have some contact in case they aren't helpful in resolving this matter Monday morning.


where that someone can stick something in the slot where the money comes out...and that jams the money...and prevents the machine from completing its process. Then after you leave the area....they walk over and unjam it and the money comes out. I think I may have read about this here on DR1 concerning machines in Santo Domingo. Don't know if there is any validity to the story.
 

Thebes

New member
Jun 18, 2004
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An update

Twilight and I went to Scotia Bank early this morning. Within a couple of minutes we had our card back, and the teller helping us was very polite. He asked us to call our bank and confirm that the money had been taken from our account, and I had thought that he said if it had to come back and he would help us (ie that the bank would give us the money)

Well the money had of course been taken from our account, which we found out when our bank opened in New Mexico about three hours later. I think that there might have been some confusion, or perhaps some stonewalling, as we don't have our money back yet.

I found my local bank in the US very helpful since the employee I am dealing with there speaks Spanish. Although the teller at Scotia speaks some English, it is really not enough and my Spanish is far worse, so I had my bank talk to him.

Anyway, it looks like the main Scotia Bank office in Santo Domingo is supposed to work it out with my bank in the US. It sounds like it will be weeks before I have the money back, but it seems likely I will eventually get it back. I might have to fill out some dispute forms, etc.

The teller had said he would try to speed up the process. For a few moments he alluded that the same problem had happened with another customer as well. At the end of the conversation, though, he blamed the problem on the improbable (since I saw the machine used after we tried) lack of money in the machine "because so many people use it"... indeed this could cause problems but I can't see how the machine would run out so early in the weekend and then have money again later in the night. Sigh... It looks like its probably going to take a few more telephone calls to my bank, etc.

I would advise others to strongly consider avoiding this machine (and perhaps any machine in Sosua) outside of normal business hours. I still feel strongly that someone had rigged this to happen, and then got the money from the machine after they allowed it to boot back up.
 

baileyboy

New member
Jun 27, 2004
392
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Thebes said:
Hello, I wanted to post on here quickly so that others might avoid trouble at this machine. I am pretty sure that what happened was an orchastrated theft and not just a random glitch.

At about 6:45 pm on the 31st I tried to punch out money with my ATM card, which I do fairly often from this machine and a few others in Sosua at different banks. I have never had any trouble before.

Near the end of the transaction the screen blanked and started faintly flashing as the machine made counting noises. Then it restarted, and I saw the reboot messages like one sees with a computer. This repeated several times and then the screen just started flashing faintly like it had no signal. Later we went by the machine and it was back up.

Anyway, I THINK, don't know for sure, that someone was remotely powering off the ATM when in finished counting. It retained my card and cash. None of the lights around the ATM lost power, the machine just kept rebooting. We waited around 20 minutes nearby and there was of course no one from the bank around. My account appears to have been debited for the money.

So, probably, I think its a good idea to avoid this machine for a while and be on the lookout for a scam like this.

Also, if anyone knows someone with Scotia Bank, please PM me. It would be nice to have some contact in case they aren't helpful in resolving this matter Monday morning.

I work for Scotiabank, Eletronic Banking in Canada, is there anything I could help you with? ossible sending a request to the ABM locators? I did for the one in PUerto Plata b/c everytime I went it was never avail, not in service, when I got home I sent the request, and next time I went to the DR it was working, so many I could help? Let me know
lisa
 

santanatwins

New member
Jan 20, 2004
153
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A few monhs ago...

the same thing happened to me at a scotia branch in puerto plata. But unlike you, I was fortunate to have it happen while the bank was still open. I told the service desk what happened and they told me that the gentlemen in charge of the atm's would try to make it into puerto plata before night. I told them this was unacceptable and that I would wait until midnight if I had too in order to retrieve the card.

The service desk rep assured me that she would try her best and that I come come back in a few hours to reclaim my card. Lucky for me I was just staying up the block from the bank so I stopped by every hour on the hour. I finally got my card back about three hours later.

I was assured that the money had not been debited. But I checked anyway and was lucky I didn't punch in the code before the atm shut off on me.

I will never use an atm from that bank again. I also use atms that are located inside a bank so that if there is a problem the bank is responsible not some fly by night operation.