Readers express shock over bank card fraud

Dubai: In comments sent to Gulf News, many readers expressed their shock, surprise and concern about the bank card fraud, which resulted in many people losing all their savings deposited in the banks.

"My account at NBAD was emptied on Sunday evening. I received 11 mobile text messages within five minutes which alerted me to the fraud," complains Pauline Jeynes, a UK national.

"I reported the incident to NBAD within 10 minutes of receiving the messages and was told to go to a bank and make a transaction. The ATM kept my card [I presume as proof that I had the original]. The following day I went to the main branch in Khalifa Street in Abu Dhabi and reported the incident again and filed the relevant papers.

"The equivalent of over Dh6,000 was taken in Canadian dollars from an ATM in New York [as informed by the customer service representative]. To date, I have had no reimbursement of money by NBAD, even though I proved that I had my Visa Electron Card in my possession and NBAD copied my original UK passport," she adds.

Javeiria Arshad writes, "I saw the fraud warning on the Gulf News website and changed my PIN."

Any advice?

Adanan Kazi, a reader and victim of card fraud, writes, "I am working in Dubai. After many months of savings, someone in Canada withdrew around Dh7,000 from my Invest Bank account."

"How can I get money back?" he asks. "Any advice is welcome."

Malathi writes, "I have observed that many ATMs are outside supermarkets or at malls. There are people who stand close behind you in queues.

"It is not easy for us to enter PINs without them noticing. There is no way to find who may be a fraudster amongst them."