The latest ATM scam is targeting tourists in Cape Town, Western Cape, the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) has warned.

According to the CCID, this emerged through a task force which was specifically created by the Western Cape Government to investigate the increasing prevalence of ATM fraud in the province.

CCID Safety and Security Department Manager and member of the task force, Muneeb Hendricks revealed that one of the latest scams involves convincing tourists that they require a special street parking permit to hire cars, which can only be obtained from certain ATMs.

“We have found that, because fewer visitors appear to be using ATMs in public areas, the conmen are in turn devising new distraction techniques to draw people back to where they can conduct their scams,” said Hendricks.

Hendricks said that on average the CCID are called to ten incidents of ATM fraud each week in the Central City. He went on to say that the CCID’s security department managed to disrupt ATM fraud behaviour effectively during the most recent festive season, with a campaign ran on the ground around ATM’s in  the Central City, using signage warning the public and brochures the CCID developed which were distributed by public safety officers on the streets. They were also supplied to hotels in the area.

Latest hotspots where ATMs are being hit in the Central City are at the corner of Long and Hout Street, in Long Street between Waterkant and Strand Street, the corner of Long and Leeuwen, on Buitengracht between Mechau and Hans Strijdom Street, and in Lower Long Street.

CCID CEO Tasso Evangelinos, says that the campaign has proved to be effective and that the material used, including notes on the disruption campaign, was now considered by the organisation to be ‘open source’ for the rest of the task force members to use.

“This means that the legal and law enforcement entities, tourism and hospitality industries can have access to the material for their own purposes, including customising the brochures and posters we have designed with their own logos and branding. Organisations need only contact our office and the materials will be sent in open source files for use by each entity’s own design and communications teams,” said Evangelinos.