Police don't investigate cybercrime.

[Hrrs]

I had a similar experience to Linus. After using a cash point machine, I had ~$5000 taken out of my bank account (and deposited onto gambling websites). When I called the police, they said, "what do you want us to do about it?" I was confused, "whatever you want; I am reporting a crime." The police explained that they don't investigate cybercrime. Thankfully, my bank was much more helpful, and they refunded me the entire amount since I had never gambled before.

 

A few months later, one of the gambling websites sent me a letter threatening to press charges along with a massive stack of papers of "evidence" that it was me depositing the money onto their website. I don't think there was any real "evidence", mostly pages of my name spelt wrong, wrong addresses, and screenshots of IP addresses. In the end, they didn't press charges.

 

I was really confused about the whole thing. How did the scammer manage to deposit $5000 using a new card without being flagged as suspicious? Why doesn't the police/bank have the power to ask the gambling website to freeze the money? If the scammer wins any bets, how are they going to withdraw their money? 

 

The lesson here is always contact your bank first, and then contact them again until you get your money back.

[Anghammarad]

some ATMs, which was a real hugh thing a short time ago, had skimming devices put onto them. 

 

With those devices they read your card, when you put it in, and a little camera filmed you putting in your pin code. 

 

That is why I check free open standing ATMs before using them for such kind of things.

[Needfuldoer]

Sounds like your card got skimmed. The scammer had all the same information for using your debit card as you did, so the bank and gambling site were none the wiser. That was only going to get caught once you noticed activity you didn't remember.

 

 

Definitely a job for your bank's fraud department. The police will only get involved if the bank notices a pattern of fraudulent activity across multiple accounts and loops them in.

[pythonmegapixel]

I keep most of my money in savings accounts which don't have cards. The account which does have a card (would probably be called a "checking account" in the US - it's a "current account" in the UK) only has a small amount and no arranged overdraft. This minimises the amount of money that can be stolen using the card.

I would strongly recommend that you consider doing this in the future. No disrespect or blame to the OP for this - they were probably unaware of the threat - but there's no way in hell I'd be keeping over $5000 in an account with a card which I carry around and use in cash machines.

[Hybris5112]

3 hours ago, pythonmegapixel said:

I keep most of my money in savings accounts which don't have cards. The account which does have a card (would probably be called a "checking account" in the US - it's a "current account" in the UK) only has a small amount and no arranged overdraft. This minimises the amount of money that can be stolen using the card.

I would strongly recommend that you consider doing this in the future. No disrespect or blame to the OP for this - they were probably unaware of the threat - but there's no way in hell I'd be keeping over $5000 in an account with a card which I carry around and use in cash machines.

People really under estimate the power of financial compartmentalization.

[Hrrs]

4 hours ago, pythonmegapixel said:

I keep most of my money in savings accounts which don't have cards. The account which does have a card (would probably be called a "checking account" in the US - it's a "current account" in the UK) only has a small amount and no arranged overdraft. This minimises the amount of money that can be stolen using the card.

I would strongly recommend that you consider doing this in the future. No disrespect or blame to the OP for this - they were probably unaware of the threat - but there's no way in hell I'd be keeping over $5000 in an account with a card which I carry around and use in cash machines.

I don't use savings accounts, and I don't understand why anyone would—don't they offer <1%? Some savings accounts also charge monthly fees or for withdrawal.

 

Having $5000 in a current account seems reasonable; that's 1-2 months of expenses.

[dilpickle]

 

 

Being a cybercrime is not really relevant. If someone stole the $5000 out of your wallet at gunpoint they would have given you the exact same response.

 

Police don't investigate ANY crime unless it's a high profile media case or it involves one of their own. 

[pythonmegapixel]

4 minutes ago, Hrrs said:

I don't use savings accounts, and I don't understand why anyone would—don't they offer <1%? Some savings accounts also charge monthly fees or for withdrawal.

Well, the reason I use them is exactly what I've described - at any one time the amount of money accessible using my card is quite small, so there's less to potentially be stolen. The interest paid will be more than a current account, even if it is rather small.

 

In the UK, banks generally offer basic savings accounts which have no monthly charge and unlimited withdrawals. If you have a savings account with the same bank as your current account, you can transfer money between them electronically in less than a minute.

 

Just to be clear: I'm not trying to blame you for your money being stolen, just suggest some things you could do which might reduce the chance of it happening again.

[Needfuldoer]

2 hours ago, Hybris5112 said:

People really under estimate the power of financial compartmentalization.

Yup! There's no reason not to compartmentalize when most credit unions let you open all the free checking accounts you want. Even if you keep all your money at one banking institution, there's no reason to expose the direct deposit checking account to PayPal or your utilities.