Credit card skimming alert after reports from Busselton residents

There are fears card scammers have set up in Busselton after separate reports of people claiming their credit cards have been skimmed while shopping at local outlets. One local woman claims $1200 of unauthorised transactions have been made on her credit card, while a Busselton family has taken to social media to warn shoppers after they lost money from their accounts. Card skimming involves illegal modifications to ATMs or point-of-sale machines that enable thieves to capture PINs and credit card data to steal money from accounts or clone cards to make unauthorised purchases. Busselton resident Annette Kontogeorgis believes she fell victim to card skimming after there were four fraudulent transactions totalling $1200 on her account before she could cancel her card. Ms Kontogeorgis said she was alerted to a suspicious transaction on her account by the ANZ in November. “I jumped straight onto my online banking and checked,” she said. Ms Kontogeorgis is still waiting for the outcome of an investigation by the ANZ, which they said would take eight weeks. “I am hopeful my money will be returned and I will be chasing the ANZ again soon,” she said. Another Busselton resident, Elle Lee Hutchins, said on social media money had been taken out of her and her partner’s accounts just after Christmas. Ms Hutchins said on Facebook various businesses had tried to withdraw money from her partner’s account overnight. Despite the couple’s accounts not being linked, the scammers withdrew funds from both of their accounts separately. In an attempt to understand where the card skimming could have occurred, Ms Hutchins and her partner reviewed their account statements for where they had both used cards to pay for transactions and drew up a list of potential locations. The couple have urged people to be vigilant and check bank and card statements carefully. “It has been extremely frustrating,” Ms Hutchins said on Facebook. WA Police said regularly changing PINs was a good start in defending against card skimming fraud. They said people should regularly check their statements and report any questionable transactions immediately to their bank or financial institution. If your card has been skimmed and money illegally withdrawn from your account, report it to both your bank and to your local police. The Australian Payments Network reported that in the previous financial year, card skimming fraud totalled more than $8 million.