Money taken from ATM - Not by me!

I got a mini statement from the atm machine today after it saying I had a £195 overdraft. The statement is saying that on the 3rd Jan £440 was taken out, and that definitely wasn't by me. I changed my pin, and phoned the bank(Ulster Bank), they said they would send me a statement out and then I could dispute the charges.

How is this dispute likely to go, and am I likely to get my money back? Is there anything else I can do? Thanks in advance, Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this, wasn't sure where to post.

Where is the ATM in question? Have you ever used it? Any chance that the £440 was taken out from a non-Ulster Bank Atm over the holiday period and only hit your account several days later? If the ATM is covered by CCTV, you may be able to get hold of video evidence to see who was using the ATM in question at that time.

Best of luck.

Regardless of the presence (or not) of CCTV footage, if you are 100% sure you didn't take out this money, stick to your guns. You will have to talk to Gardai (this happened to my brother) and the bank will ask you 120 questions. You will probably need to prove that you were not negligent. I checked UB's website but their terms & conditions aren't up there (at least I couldn't find them). Sometimes t&c state that you have to pay the first €x yourself in these cases.

Again, good luck with this.

The mini-statement unfortunately doesn't give details of where the ATM is, I'll have to wait for the proper statement to come. The wait is the worst part, because i'm on a student loan, and that was half my money gone.

There is no chance of it just being a late holiday transaction.

I am 110% sure I didn't take out the money, especially because it was actually 4 separate transactions. £100, £100, £200, £40. So I would certainly remember taking out 4 different sums of such a large amount in one day, especially since i'm pretty tight with money

Hopefully It will work out ok, They seem friendly enough at the bank. You say your brother had to speak to the gardai, well i'm up north, but i'd assume it would be similar.

I'm pretty angry, knowing that some criminal is out there with my money. GAH!

As already suggested by another poster, it may be a case that the transactions took place over the christmas period and only hit your account on the 4th. Are any transaction you done over the previous week also accounted for on the mini statement?

There is a transaction on the 23rd, that I know took place on the 23rd. There is another on the 29th dec, which I cannot remember doing, but it is possible that it was me. The only other transactions were the bigger ones. I'm going to the bank tomorrow to get a full statement which will hopefully highlight dates/times/places of each transaction, and can then dispute it with the bank.

To clarify, I know that I have not taken out the £400(consisting of he £100, £100, and £200) at any period of time, so it's not simply a case of the statement confusing me.

Norny said:

The mini-statement unfortunately doesn't give details of where the ATM is, I'll have to wait for the proper statement to come.

Click to expand...

You don't have to wait. Ring up & kick up a fuss over the phone and they'll give you the ATM locations.

Possibilities are as follows:-

a) you took the money and forgot (seems highly unlikely given your earlier posts)

b) this is a horrible one - someone in your place of abode (family member, flatmate etc) may have had access to your card (and PIN) and taken the money - might be unlikely, but don't dismiss it straight away (I've encountered this one quite a few times)

c) you are the subject of a skimming scam

<<< I'm working on the basis that you haven't left your PIN with the Card (yes it happens) - if it's discovered that you have, then the loss will be yours>>>

Talk with your bank, they should be able to tell you immediately what ATM's have been used to take out the money (this can help distinguish between b) and c) above. E.g. you live in Dublin and all withdrawals are made in Cork, where neither you nor famility nor flatmate would have been. Either way, if (as you are) are absolutely satisfied that you haven't taken the money, you will need to report to Gardai (as either way there has been a fraud on your account), once reported you should get your money back from your Bank (Gardai will have to confirm your reporting to Bank).

Hope it all works out for you.

BM