Image: Man loses card in ATM and finds he has been skimmed. Credit: Google Maps.
A French tourist, JP, 36, reported to police on Thursday morning that 1494.27 Euros was missing from his bank account, presumed to have been skimmed.
While making the report he said that he had visited Bali for the first time during June 2019 and then went to Jakarta, Singapore, several times before he came back again this month and stayed for several days on Nusa Lembongan.
The man discovered that the money was gone after his debit card was retained by a Mandiri ATM machine on Wednesday.
“I made a transaction on the ATM machine near the Burger King on Jalan Sunset Road, but my card was swallowed so I blocked it,” he said to baliexpress.com when he was at Bali Polda Headquarters yesterday.
After he blocked the card, he asked the bank to send an account statement related to his transactions while in Bali. When he read the statement, he was shocked to discover there were 16 withdrawals that he didn’t know anything about on the statement.
“I didn’t make those withdrawals. That’s why I came to the police with the bank statement as proof. This has to be skimming,” he said. One of the suspicious transaction was on the day of July 14, 2019. The bank stated that he withdrew 68.21 Euros at an ATM in Denpasar, but he was on Nusa Lembongan from July 12-19, 2019.
Then, on July 16, 2019, there were two withdrawals from an ATM in Denpasar again for a total of 138.02 Euros. On July 19, 2019, there was another withdrawal of 68.84 Euros at another ATM in Denpasar while he was in Amed, Karangasem.
Then the transactions peaked on Monday when there were 12 withdrawals at an ATM at Hardys Mall in Denpasar for a total of 1224.36 Euros. “I was in Seminyak at that time and I have never been to Hardys Mall. I don’t even know where it is,” he explained.
After receiving the statement, he went immediately to the police to report the alleged skimming.
He wanted to ensure that the police would investigate the case, because he has heard similar cases that occurred to several tourists in Bali. “How can I be sure that the police will investigate my case? Will they really investigate it? I think the culprit must have installed a camera on the ATM and I think I have to watch the CCTV footage from the ATM machines that were stated on my bank statement,” he said.
One of the police officers said that another foreigner had reported a similar case to police. “We have arrested several suspects recently. The last suspect was the Bulgarian. We are still investigating who is behind these particular crimes,” he concluded.
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