ATM Fraud from Sunshine Village

I used the ATM next to HiLo supermarket on 06Feb18, then on 13Apr18 was notified of a US$500 fraudulent ATM withdrawal using a clone of my card at “Royal Bank of Canada”. Significant thing is that the particular ATM card that I used for this transaction was never used for any other transaction.

I’ve never had any ATM problems in any previous yearly trips, and I’ve had no problem so far with any transactions this year using my other card using Scotia Bank ATM on traffic circle.

I will obviously never use the ATM at HiLo again.

I of course disputed the fraudulent transaction and canceled the ATM card. The bank for this ATM card advises it will take 10 working days to investigate this. I hope funds will be returned after this investigation.

This is exactly why I only take cash. People give me a hard time on the board for it, but I've never had to deal with this crap.

Sorry it happened to you. I hope you get every penny back.

Cash is King!

I worry about fraud in the US so in Jamaica which has less resources for enforcement the only way to protect your self is with cash. Lots of small bills

I also used that ATM machine last Feb and just had a fraudulent withdrawal from the same card. The card is canceled and I will get the money back so it is not a huge deal. But I too will never go back to that ATM next to Hi Lo. I use mostly cash when in Negril, but when you are there for 3 months at a time it would be hard to use all cash.

Hope it all works out for you, Frankk.

A good friend mine was hacked...she had two transactions from India go through while she was here in Negril...thankfully her bank is very proactive with these issues and she was able to resolve the problem as soon as she got back to Canada...$800cad returned immediately. Apparently a number of people had been hacked at her bank in Canada.

Unfortunately, in this day and age of banking and ATM hacks/skimming we all have to help prevent the issue. I tell my bank if I'm travelling elsewhere and they always alert me if there's unusual activity on my card. I continually check my account online for problems also.

The banks here are trying also...we lost use of the ATM at Time Square late last summer after some hacking/skimming issues...it was only recently replaced with new modern hardware to help prevent these problems.

The fraudulent withdrawals on my card also were made in India. Maybe a coincidence. Although to quote Gibbs (rule 31) There is no such thing as a coincidence.

Lord I miss Traveler's Cheques (Checks).

They were a low tech solution to fraud and theft but they worked so well! I used them all the time and after getting my hotel room broken into while visiting Hawaii and having ALL of them stolen, I had all my money back in my pocket the same day.

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Originally Posted by yooper bill

The fraudulent withdrawals on my card also were made in India. Maybe a coincidence. Although to quote Gibbs (rule 31) There is no such thing as a coincidence.

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The episode I saw two days ago had that as rule 39...

We used the Hi/Lo ATM in Feb of this year and our card was also hit. We had charges from India show up yesterday. Cards are canceled and we'll be staying away from the Hi/Lo from now on.

i use the atm by scotia bank. never a problem so far. anyone had a problem there? is the atm by hi lo in a closed location?

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Originally Posted by original spanky

i use the atm by scotia bank. never a problem so far. anyone had a problem there? is the atm by hi lo in a closed location?

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As I've mentioned in my previous post...unfortunately, it's different ATMs at different times.
The ATM that was hit at Time Square is a Scotia Bank machine and the one near Hi Lo is a NCB...NCB is in an enclosed area.

This isn't a Jamaica problem...it's a world wide issue...it's also not just a skimming problem but a hacking problem at processing centres.
We all need to be diligent with our accounts and stay on top of the situation. To each our own way of dealing with money...but I still prefer not to walk around with a pile of cash and my bank will remedy the situation if there is a hack of my account or a skimming of my card.

When we went this year we reduce our daily withdrawal limit to $100 every 24 hours. So the card could not be used twice in the same day. We take some money and lock it up so we can cover an expensive dinner or art purchase, but we have found a hundred a day is so much that we only go back every few days. We make sure we cover our rooms, airport pick up and 1st day grocery/booze stop and major trips, then we coast. But you can have your daily withdrawal limit reduced if you want to use your card and not get stung.

I received my money back within a week. I did check for skimmers when I used ATM at HiLo but didn’t find anything obvious. I will only use the Scotia bank in future and hope for the best. And of course I will keep my ATM cards disabled until I actually need to use them.

My significant other also used the ATM by the HiLo in February and had a fraudulent charge from India show up a few weeks ago. He's working to get it fixed (I think it was for $160 US) but he never got the "fraud application" his bank was supposed to email him, so now they're giving him a hard time. They did shut down that card and send him a new one. We will definitely be avoiding that ATM in the future. We usually avoid the main ScotiaBank because it seems to always have lines, plus their out-of-network fee is higher than others. This is the first time we've had a problem in over 20 years of traveling to Jamaica.

Qwerty,

To stay "on network", there are two other NCB ATMs in Negril.

One is by the Value Master and the other is in the gas station up by Hedo and Royalton.

I used the ScotiaBank at the roundabout/square ( last week and in the past ). I've checked my account each day since then. I also have a credit union that uses an app that allows me to turn on and off access to the debit card account so new charges are blocked when it is "off".

I got hacked last year through Baltimore and it was quickly taken care of but a total hassle... ever since then, I use the ON/OFF when I need to use my debit card.

Fortunately, I haven't been a victim of fraud through JA yet, and the ScotiaBank gave the best exchange rate this past week at about 1 USD to 120 JAD. I used a heavy mix of US and JA cash this week and it wasn't a problem ever, which I don't love since I want to exchange and use local currency, but it is what it is.

This is sounding like a repeat of what happened a while back. Rather than an ATM skimmer, it is apparently a hack at the processing center in Brazil.

All international card processing for the Caribbean goes through this processing center. A friend just returned from Costa Rica and had their international card also "used" in India.

This same thing happened a few years ago and all the banking institutions were aware of it. So if your card was used recently in the Caribbean and then India, let your bank know that the issue is with the processing center. This should speed up your refund.

I also miss using Traveler's Checks, but I really like Irine's idea. Going to try that on our next trip!

The older I get, the more my signature gets distorted. Even back in the '80's when I was using Travelers Checks, I'd get asked to "sign it like the other one." These days, I couldn't sign my name twice alike if my life depended upon it.