They make the ATM go haywire and by confusing the people who are waiting for withdrawals they make them go away, but it’s a scam: the latest victim is in Aprilia, where an elderly man had money withdrawn from his account.
His daughter told it on social media.
Aprilia, the ingenious trick at the ATM
«He went to the bank to withdraw around lunchtime, he was approached by two gentlemen who were regularly withdrawing from the other ATM, at a certain point one of the two asked my father if his ATM worked, and my father said “yes , mine yes'”.
«Shortly afterwards – he added – my father’s phone also blocked, giving him the initial screen (the one where it says insert ATM) whereupon the gentleman next door told my father to type the 5 key which would be unlocked: after doing so, a red screen and the ATM restarts holding dad’s card”.
In the meantime the two leave, but it’s not over.
«My father, thinking that the ATM had eaten the card, went out, shortly after he received a text message to withdraw from his card and immediately after another… Obviously we filed a complaint and on Monday we will go to the bank, but it remains to be understood how the guys could withdraw without ATM and without pin”.
The mechanism of the scam is therefore not completely clarified at the moment. Certainly a well-architected system – and the man had probably been kept under observation – which requires even greater attention when making withdrawals.
Unfortunately, scammers are astute in stealing people’s good faith and what happened to the elderly man in Aprilia could happen to anyone.
The important thing is not to be embarrassed and report everything.
Can I request a refund from the bank?
The defrauded person can actually request a refund from the bank, but it is not certain that the bank will agree.
Article 12 co. 3 legislative decree n. 11/2010 reads:
“unless he acted […] with fraud or gross negligence, the payer can bear, for an amount not exceeding 50 euros, the loss relating to unauthorized payment transactions resulting from the improper use of the payment instrument following its theft, loss or misappropriation”.
Therefore, the risk associated with the use of electronic payment instruments would fall entirely on the bank, apart from a non-refundable deductible of 50 euros (but some banks refund that too).
The problem is that the defrauded person must demonstrate that he did not act with intent or gross negligence.
What does it mean?
To give a somewhat trivial example, but which clarifies, if a person writes their pin number on a piece of paper and then leaves their credit card and piece of paper unattended in public, this would be a case of gross negligence. But this does not appear to be the case of the defrauded Aprilia gentleman.
If the bank refuses, then things get complicated because the defrauded person can:
- contact an out-of-court resolution body for disputes arising between banks and customers called the Financial Banking Arbitrator (ABF), submitting an appeal within 12 months of submitting the complaint
- appeal to the competent judicial authority for value, i.e. the Justice of the Peace (for disputes up to 5,000 euros) or the Court (for disputes of a higher value).
READ ALSO:
They steal 50 euros from your cards just by touching you. How to protect yourself from the Contactless pirate scam
