Money will be withdrawn from an ATM, provided that the card (original or clone) matches the entered pin.
The least that we can do now is to do all in our power to prevent the card from being cloned and from disclosing the pin.
Such as but not limited to:
- Using ATM's that have devices that prevent cloning tools to be inserted
- Minimizing the use of cards, even in supermarkets, restaurants & shops. The fraudster may pretend that the first machine does not work, then tries it on the second, which works, little does the victim know that the card's details have just been captured. Withdraw enough to minimize the frequency of ATM withdrawals. Could even transfer cash to Mobile Money.
- Using one hand to enter the pin, and the other to cover. The body can also be used to block particular persons from seeing the keypad.
- Change the pin from the initial one that came with the card.
- Store the card safe.
- For online cash theft, all that the thief needs is your card number and the card security / verification code, which are all on the debit / credit card. Safe storage cannot be overemphasized. When doing a purchase, it is sad that the card will have to be handed over to someone to swipe, then that someone will have to confirm that the signature matches, and it is at that point that they can easily get the cards security / verification code.
Advice would be, NOT to get a card on an account that has a lot of money.
For convenience, get a secondary account for the card, let the account have just has enough money to meet your needs. Do not store extra that you cannot afford to loose. If for example, you are on an international engagement or somewhere locally and you deplete the cash in the card, have online banking access to the acc with cash and do a transfer to the card's acc. The transaction should be fast if the two account are in the same bank.
The biggest changes to curb almost all ATM fraud will need to come from the banks and not the users. One of the simple things that can be done is to introduce SMS code verification. When a card is inserted, and the pin entered, the bank sends the owner a code via SMS that needs to be entered before any transaction can take place. A fraudster will not be able to withdraw without the code that is randomly generated for every transaction, unless the thief also has the phone that is on and unlocked, unless the fraudster also has the sim's pin. On contact, the bank can stop sending the code and block the card.
I have used such a system in doing online banking, as in, part of logging in involves entering the randomly generated code for that particular session, but I'm yet to see it implemented in ATM's for it will almost eradicate ATM fraud.
They tried to bury us, they didn't know we were seeds.