Money Wellness

managing your money

Published 20 Oct 2025

3 min read

Dosh dilemma: Tom’s costly ATM mistake

Tom was heading out on a first date and wanted to withdraw some cash. He stopped at the nearest ATM, inserted his debt card and entered his PIN. But an error message appeared on the machine, saying: ‘Transaction cancelled – card jammed.’

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead - Money Wellness

Written by: Gabrielle Pickard Whitehead

Lead financial content writer

Published: 20 October 2025

A man standing behind him leaned in and said: “That happened to me the other week on this machine. There’s not much you can do, just call your bank and let them know.”

He thanked the stranger, assumed the machine had kept the card and hurried off to his date, planning to use his credit card instead.

But the man didn’t walk away.

Once Tom was out of sight, he tapped a few buttons on the ATM, removed a hidden device from the card slot and with it, Tom’s debit card.

Later that night Tom was shocked to see a series of unauthorised withdrawals and purchases, totalling £700.

That’s when it hit him, the man wasn’t being helpful, he was a scammer.

What happened?

This is a type of scam known as a ‘card trapping’ or ‘reverse ATM scam’.

Here's how it worked:

Before Tom arrived, the scammer had inserted a small device into the card slot to trap cards inside the machine.

While Tom entered his PIN, the scammer stood close enough to watch and memorise it.

After the error message, Tom walked away thinking the ATM had eaten his card.

The scammer then retrieved both the device and the trapped card, now armed with the PIN, allowing him to withdraw money and make contactless purchases.

What should Tom do?

If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, here are the immediate steps to take:

  • contact your bank immediately, use your mobile banking app to freeze the card if possible
  • report the card as lost or stolen and explain what happened
  • report the fraud to Action Fraud
  • file a police report
  • change your online banking passwords, especially if you use the same PIN or password across accounts

How to protect yourself when using a ATMs

To reduce your risk of falling victim to ATM scams:

  • Always cover the keypad with your free hand to avoid your PIN being seen.
  • If the ATM looks tampered with or suspicious in any way, don’t use it and report it to the bank immediately.
  • Be aware of people standing close to you or trying to distract you.
  • If your card gets ‘jammed’, report it to your card provider immediately and freeze the card either through your banking app or by calling your bank.  
  • Set a daily withdrawal limit in your banking app, this limits how much fraudsters can take if your card is compromised.

Can you get your money back?

Your bank should refund any money stolen from you as a result of fraud and identity theft. The bank can refuse to refund you if they find you acted fraudulently or were ‘grossly negligent,’ if, for example, you shared your pin or password with someone else.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead - Money Wellness

Written by: Gabrielle Pickard Whitehead

Lead financial content writer

Gabrielle is an experienced journalist, who has been writing about personal finance and the economy for over 17 years. She specialises in social and economic equality, welfare and government policy, with a strong focus on helping readers stay informed about the most important issues affecting financial security.

Published: 20 October 2025

The information in this post was correct at the time of publishing. Please check when it was written, as information can go out of date over time.

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Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead - Money Wellness

Written by: Gabrielle Pickard Whitehead

Lead financial content writer

Published: 20 October 2025

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