Beware and prepare

My friend Bob in Northern California was scammed recently.  You might read his email so you too do not get nailed in the future.  A lot of scammers out there. A local merchant was hurt by a sleight of hand artist just this week.

 Dear Robert. 

Yesterday, I was in my local grocery store (Safeway) at a self checkout station completing my purchase with my ATM card when someone close by pointed to a crinkled $20- bill where I was standing indicating that I must have dropped it.  I did not think it was mine, but I bent over and picked it up.  I walked out of the store and the person who told me about the bill came up to me and indicated that he had dropped the bill which I returned to him.

A day later I received a phone call from my bank fraud division indicating a number of charges were made on my card.  I immediately opened my wallet and found that my ATM card was gone.  There were 12 transactions ranging from $150- to $400- for a total of about $3,500-.   I denied all of these purchases and was told the card had been closed, that I needed to sign documents at my local bank denying the bogus purchases, get a new card, and would have my funds eventually restored.  The bank teller told me this happens more often than I could expect.  For security purposes I needed to change my PIN.  Who knows what personal information was included on the encrypted numbers when I applied for the ATM that the thieves could lift.

Here is what happened.  When I completed the Safeway purchases and bent over to pick up the bill, a second person of the scam removed my card and I never realized that I did not take my card back as I had opened my wallet and put something in it (the $20- bill).  The thieves have a special device that read the encryption on my card and changed my PIN.  They then issued a new card with my numbers, but with their PIN.  To avoid having the thieve discovered sooner, the transactions are limited in the amount.  They purchased small items and obtained cash back.  They even did this at a Wells Fargo branch ATM.  

I never thought that I would be the subject of a scam as I thought I would realize something was not right before it happened.  Now I feel stupid, violated and angered.  I am telling this to you so that you will not be caught off guard as was I.    

B.D.