Apr20 Written by:Kayle
4/20/2009 12:25 AM
Just got back from a quick shopping trip to Louis Trichardt with a friend...had an interesting experience at the ATM...couldn't get my card to work and turned back to tell my friend to tell her it wasn't working. The guy behind us came and took my card telling me I just need to wipe it off...so he pressed some buttons on the machine to distract me and then took my card and swiped it with a little device he had in his hand hidden underneath his wallet which he was holding. Then he wiped the card on his pants and gave it back to me, making it look as if I just needed to wipe it off to make it work. I saw him swipe the card and said, "You just swiped my card!" He put the swiper in his pocket and tried to open up his wallet to show us ID saying, "I'm with the police." I grabbed his arm and said, "OK, good, if you're with the police, let's go to the police right now!" Then he said, "I will shoot you." So I let go of his arm and he got away, but the parking attendant chased him down and called for the police who caught him. But by the time he left us to the time he got caught (1 minute maybe), he had gotten rid of the swiping device.
Anyway, we followed them to the police station where he was questioned. The police said that these guys will get your card numbers and then make new cards and use them. Though he didn't have the device, he had 8000SAR ($800) in his wallet which is a lot of cash to carry around. Plus he's from a small rural village, yet dressed nice, drove a really nice car and had all that money. All of these things made the police suspicious of him and they were trying to connect him to other similar cases as well. I was able to cancel my credit card and made sure nothing was taken off of it, so at least he didn't get any of my money. There is always an “adventure” to keep you on your toes here in Africa!
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