ATM issues

[reds1869]

zacharync, I can give no other advice than this: oneupper is extremely knowledgeable and trustworthy. If I were in your situation, I would do whatever he suggests.

I agree, his advice is about as good as it gets.

[zacharync]

Yes. You should go to the branch

Will be heading into town shortly to visit the Guatemalan bank. Bringing along my Guatemalan girlfriend just to be sure not too much is lost in translation.

Thanks for the advice oneupper. Much appreciated.

[Roy Tucker]

zacharync, I can give no other advice than this: oneupper is extremely knowledgeable and trustworthy. If I were in your situation, I would do whatever he suggests.

Sometimes this site amazes me. Where else can you go and get intelligent advice about ATM's in Guatemala?

[gonelong]

Sometimes this site amazes me. Where else can you go and get intelligent advice about ATM's in Guatemala?

We might have to start playing stump Redzone.

GL

[zacharync]

Update:

I received an email yesterday from Wells Fargo that said in part,

"We are processing a temporary credit to your Wells Fargo account. This credit is provisional until our investigation is complete."

What is the point of a provisional credit?

[RBA]

Update:

I received an email yesterday from Wells Fargo that said in part,

"We are processing a temporary credit to your Wells Fargo account. This credit is provisional until our investigation is complete."

What is the point of a provisional credit?

They are going to want it back either from you are the owner of the ATM/Bank. Unless they deem it their own fault.

[zacharync]

They are going to want it back either from you are the owner of the ATM/Bank. Unless they deem it their own fault.

Then why issue a provisional credit at all? Why not wait until the investigation is complete and they figure out who made the error?

[Roy Tucker]

Sounds like they are temporarily covering your loss which doesn't seem a bad thing. They could just tell you to wait and tough luck on the lost $$$.

After the investigation, it will either become permanent or it will get rescinded. So keep a buffer in your bank account.

[RedsfaninMT]

Don't sweat it. My wife and I went to S. Africa couple years ago. I withdrew money at an ATM at a gas station. We got home 17 days later to discover the maximum of $200 was withdrawn every day after I took that money out. I filed a claim with our bank (small, local branch) and they "provisionally" gave us all the funds back.

When I queried, why provisional, they told me that sometimes folks go overseas, withdraw the money, then come back and file a claim. They investigated the machine in question, determined there was fraud, and reimbursed me in full.

I was also told that ATM fraud like this is common place in the USA. They recommended only using an ATM at a bank in the future. I have followed that advice since.

Scared the crap out of me. That was a big shock to get back and look at the bank statement and see over $3,000 less in there than should have been.

[goreds2]

My grandmother and aunt, both from Florida, had $600 withdrawn from their Fifth Third accounts a few months ago. The bank traced the transactions to somewhere in Mexico and Canada. After investigating, it was found that they had both used their cards at an eating establishment and that an employee there stole their card information and sold it to a third party.

To Fifth Third's credit, they immediately refunded their money once they discovered what had happened. I think you should really push your bank into doing the same, they are at fault for not flagging and denying a suspicious transaction.

I have never used a debit or credit card at a restaurant. This is why.

[Caveman Techie]

Pro tip* Never use those free standing small ATM's. The money in those things are kept secure using a very good safe, however the motherboard that controls the ATM is not so well protected. Most of them are protected by a very thin aluminum box that is key'd commonly.

I saw a demonstration at Black Hat where the guy loaded a new OS to a USB flash drive, walked up to one of those ATM's, opened it up and plugged in the flash drive, closed the MB box in less than 5 seconds. After that he just rebooted the ATM by unplugging it from the wall and plugging it back in. Once it came up he owned all the information that ATM had. He said if he were really hacking the machine he wouldn't interfere with the operation of it, cause the banks/owners of the ATM's track the amount of money in the ATM very closely. He would just collect card numbers and pin's for a few days, then have the ATM phone home and dump all the data he had collected.

Very interesting demonstration.

[oneupper]

I think you're fine now. You raised enough stink with WF and the bank in Guatemala, for there to be little doubt you were short-changed. And you did it quickly enough to thwart attempts to put the issue to the side (and someone take advantage).
Possession is 90% of ownership, they say. It may be "temporary", but you have your money. It's going to be difficult for the banks to justify taking it away again.

Good job.