Any else get hit by this EFTPOS scam?

[Pinch]

Hey all

Anyone else get hit by this?

Went to check my transaction account to make sure my first mortgage payment after a refinance was ok to come out. Um, no. Bal: -8.39. That would have been a good look defaulting on the first payment!

Not quite what I was expecting to see.

Apparently I was hit by these EFTPOS skimmers. Most likely as when I used my debit card at a Macca's in Sydney last year.

Simple solution though - change all your PIN's NOW!

Cleaned me out about $1500. Lucky I could transfer it back in from elsewhere though. ANZ reckons it will be returned... within 3 months. Don't know what you do if you couldn't cover it in the meantime...

Being the ever-philosophical person I am (even more so after my family issues last year) I just shrugged and thanked whomever that they didn't do it the old fashion way and bop me or knife me after I withdrew it from an ATM. Pretty glad they hit my account when they did too, and not just after my wife and I got paid and before we transferred it back out.

They say there is very little you can do to identify it before it happens, the machines are altered internally. So there is no even minute tell-tale like the old ATM skimmers. It could also have been skimmed months ago, and only now starting to be used.

Check your statements.

Don't keep all your money is a card-linked account.

And change your PIN if you haven't already.

I am also kind of angry at the ANZ 'Falcon' though, because its more of a pigeon! See I made two transactions in Sydney on Sat morning, then these scammers started withdrawing from my account at UK ATM''s 2 hours after my last Sydney withdrawal. Now call me a sucker for using long haul flights to get to London, but I was under the impression that teleporters were still generally unavailable. Thus a card used in Sydney could not legitimately be used in London 2 hours later (debit card remember).

Amex is my main purchase card - both normally and when travelling. They have picked up attempted fraud on this basis before. I.e. time + distance = no way! In that case Amex stopped my card until they called me to confirm that no I didn't just get petrol in Sydney AND try to get a USD 200 cash advance in Belarus within 4 hours of each other. Sorted there and then. No money taken from my account, and no reimbursement or chasing up needed.

And why can't we have the chip technology in ALL debit cards either that stops these magnetic strip insecurity issues?

It is said they targetted Australia because we are behind the rest of the world on protecting ourselves against such attacks.

Hope no one else got hit, but change your PIN's just in case.


Pinch.