
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994                   TAG: 9411170118
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                                 LENGTH: Short

BANK CUSTOMER REPORTS ATM SCAM

A woman who accepted the help of another woman when an automatic teller machine failed to return her card found her checking and savings accounts nearly cleaned out the next morning.

The 23-year-old victim said the machine at Central Fidelity Bank failed to work and would not return her card. Another woman arrived and suggested she enter her personal identification code and hit the cancel key twice.

The victim said the machine then said it was temporarily out of service and kept her card. The next morning, the victim discovered that $725 had been withdrawn from her accounts.

Videotape from a security camera in the ATM vestibule showed a man tampering with the machine shortly before the victim arrived.

After the victim left, the same man returned and retrieved the victim's card. Bank investigators are trying to trace the later transactions on the victim's card, which were made in another state, police said.

by CNB