Vietnam man gets $4,464 withdrawn from bank account during sleep
Vietnam man gets $4,464 withdrawn from bank account during sleep
A man in Ho Chi Minh City had VND100 million (US$4,464) withdrawn from his bank account over the night last weekend while his ATM card was still safe in his wallet.
Nguyen Thanh Huy, of Go Vap District, on Sunday morning woke up to find 20 text messages from his bank notifying him that there had been 20 successful withdrawals of VND5 million each from his account at Agribank around midnight.
Huy had the previous day just transferred VND114 million into the account.
“Finding it hard to believe, I rushed to the nearest Agribank ATM to check my account balance and print the statement, only to find that there were indeed only VND14 million left in it,” Huy said. “I have transferred the remaining sum to my wife’s account and changed the card’s PIN.”
According to Huy, he had tried to contact the bank’s customer service line the whole morning to no avail, and it was not until midday that an employee picked up and instructed him to lock his account.
Huy came to the bank the next morning to report the incident and made a written statement that it was not him or any of his family members who had carried out the transactions.
“Agribank told me that the withdrawals had been done in Binh Duong Province, but they haven’t shown me the security camera footage of the transactions,” Huy said.
Huy asserted that the criminals were professionals who knew that the bank only allowed the maximum of VND50 million in cash to be withdrawn from ATMs in a day, and had waited near midnight to commit the crime so they could repeat the transactions after midnight.
An Agribank representative said the criminals had installed an identity theft device on the ATM where Huy had previously used his card, whereas his PIN had been stolen using a hidden camera.
The thieves then used the stolen information to make a fake card and withdraw the victim’s money.
“The security camera footage showed the group of criminals using a fake card to withdraw money from an ATM in Di An City, Binh Duong Province,” the representative said. “[Agribank] is working with the police to identify the thieves and protect the legal rights of the card holder.”
