odd experience at garage - tell me about card cloning

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Had a slightly odd experience at a garage a little while ago. As I entered the place there was one guy in front of me who, I assume, paid cash. I got my card out and he ushered me to another til which I found slightly strange. If one the card machine doesn't work on one of the tills then why use it at all. Anyway, I keyed in my pin and it rang up "denied", or similar, straight away.

The manner of the guy struck me as odd so instead of keying in the details again I asked him if there was a cash machine nearby. There was one outside so I used that and paid cash.

As I felt it suspicious I called the bank and they can see the card transaction on the system, which isn't unusual, but whether it will go through now or not I don't know.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of card fraud and does it sound like that's what happened or am I being paranoid?

B@
 
Not automatically a scam, a garage I know the people use both tils, one has the cash float the other they just use for the card machine. Helps them serve customers quicker.

But it could also be a scam!
 
Maybe he was using the till that didn't have the card machine that works because it was nearer the window and he needed to keep an eye on the forecourt?
 
It's weird that he'd usher you on to a different till for using your card, I'll give you that, but if it's a chain garage I'd say the chance of the chap on the till trying to clone your card are zilch at best.

But my debit card is declined a few times a week with irritating regularity, 9/10 the machines don't/can't read the chip in my card, which suggests I should get a replacement. Just cba at the moment, use my debit card for the overwhelming majority of purchases I make on a daily basis. Having a card declined a couple of times isn't really that abnormal in my experience.
 
Quite a few people I know had they're cards cloned at a local Shell station and had around £1000 spent overseas on the cards.

Does seem odd to me that it would decline that quick, as said above ring the bank and get a new card issued, even if its for peace of mind.
 
Had a dodgy experience some time ago. I went to pay for petrol at my local pumps and as I was about to put my card into a reader when the cashier stated it was out of order (appeared fine to me) and took my card to use in the 'swiper' on the till. He did this once before taking out the card, looking at it, and seemingly cleaning it by wiping it on his sleeve before he then made a movement where he quickly put it in his other hand but when doing so moved the card below the desk out of sight.

The whole thing didn't seem quite right and needless to say as soon as I got home I phoned my bank and reported it and they cancelled the card as a precaution.
 
Only ever use cards at the supermarket garages, and only if paying at the pump.

Use independents then I always use cash, same with dodgy corner shops.
 
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