Our Security specialists have been alerted to a new crime.
Between 1330hrs and 1500hrs on Wednesday 18th May 2022, two men who appear to have been affiliated, were loitering around two ticket machines in an NHS car park at a Trust in the West Sussex Area.
The men were approaching visitors, attempting to purchase a parking ticket, indicating there was an issue with cash payments and that card payments were required to obtain a parking ticket from the machine. The men then assisted visitors with card payments at the machine; however, they were recording entered pin numbers with their mobile phones. Whilst distracting the visitor, they would remove the payment card from the machine, informing the visitor that the machine had retained their card. On at least one occasion, the visitor then used a different card, losing it again to the fraudsters, following the same process. The victims were elderly and/or of limited mobility so they were targeted specifically due to their vulnerability.
Shortly after, the stolen cards were charged, at the nearest town centre’s cash machine, where the suspects had withdrawn hundreds of pounds in cash.
Sussex police have also identified the same type of incident on the 9th May 2022 in East Sussex and are asking for possible identification of their suspect. https://www.sussex.police.uk/news/sussex/news/news/identity-appeal-after-woman-is-scammed-in-hove/
Our Security Management Specialists are available to provide advice and assurance on security management issues. You can contact us via our Contact Us page and to find out more about our Security Management services, please visit out dedicated website page Security Management.