Recently in Boston, a woman fell victim to a scam near an ATM. She recounted that a man approached her claiming to assist with withdrawing money from the ATM, but ended up swindling her out of tens of thousands of dollars. Fortunately, she managed to recover the lost funds.
The victim of this incident, Megan Bates, recounted to the media that on the afternoon of June 21st, she was at a Bank of America ATM on Porter Street in East Boston to withdraw cash for lunch. As she left the ATM, a man stopped her, informing her that there was money still in the ATM slot and that the machine might have a problem. Bates mentioned that she saw a $10 bill inside the machine, with a red light flashing.
“He said, ‘Give me your card.’ Then he took my card from me and inserted it into the machine. He said, ‘Enter your PIN.’ He said, ‘You must close the transaction because it’s still active,'” Bates recalled.
“Everything happened so fast, I didn’t even have time to think,” Bates said.
At the time, Bates believed the man was acting out of goodwill, trying to help her. However, the next day, she discovered that her account was debited three times for $4,000 each, totaling $12,000.
It was then that Bates realized the debit card she got back wasn’t hers but belonged to someone named Victor.
“Somewhat mysteriously, when the card was retrieved again from the ATM, he switched the cards,” Bates said. She reported the incident to the Boston police and Bank of America.
On June 25th, Bates disclosed that she had recovered the money, and the bank confirmed that the case had been “properly resolved.” However, Bank of America stated they were investigating the incident, suspecting it might involve identity theft. ◇