Student victim of cash-machine con

A STUDENT is warning users of town-centre cash machines after being targeted by a pair of daylight scammers.

Stacey Hall (18), from Richmond Street, Royton, used the Co-operative Bank cash machine, next to the Spindles shopping centre, at 1pm last Wednesday to check her account.

After entering her pin number, a man approached her and began pushing all the buttons on the keyboard.

As she pushed him away, a woman to her left spun her round and said the cash machine had swallowed her card and would do the same with hers.

When Stacey turned back to the screen, it had reset and the man told her the machine had taken her card.

By the time she crossed Market Place to report the matter to her own bank, The Yorkshire Bank, her account had been emptied of £260 - just four minutes after she was targeted.

Stacey, an ICT student at Oldham College, said: “They’d taken everything out of my account.

“The couple had been in the line before me taking some money out and I’d assumed they’d gone away, but they must have watched me put my pin number in.

“While I was at the Yorkshire Bank cancelling my card, staff told me another woman had been targeted by the same couple outside their branch minutes after it had happened to me.”

Stacey’s stepmother Mandy Heney (30), said: “I’m very annoyed.

“Stacey never uses her card to take money out and on this occasion was checking how much was in her account.

“They’ve targeted her because she is 18 and by herself. We just want to warn other people to stay vigilant.”

The couple are described as Asian, in their 20s and speaking with a local accent.

The woman had red streaks in her hair and the man was wearing a deep grey top.

The matter has been reported to the police.

A spokesperson for Yorkshire Bank, who have reinstated the missing money, said: “We would urge customers to always take caution whenever they use an ATM.

“Distraction fraud like this is relatively rare and can be avoided by not leaving the ATM while the card is inside.

“Should the card ever be retained or a fault occur then a message will appear advising the customer of this.”