Last week while waiting for my flight to Miami during My 12 Hour Travel Nightmare in the Dominican Republic, I received an e-mail notification from Bank of America that my ATM debit card was just used to withdraw $226.50. The ATM withdraw came from the Bank of Nova SC in the Dominican Republic and I thought that was strange because I was at Puerto Plata International Airport (POP) waiting for my flight. At this point, I realized that my debit card was fraudulently used in the Dominican Republic.
A minute later, I received a second e-mail from Bank of America stating that there was Unusual Debit Card Activity.
I also received a text message from Bank of America which I found out they tried to withdraw the same amount of $226.50 a second time which Bank of America automatically declined. I responded to the Bank of America text with a “NO” since I did not authorize the fraudulent ATM transactions and they blocked my card.
I immediately notified Bank of America to send me a new replacement ATM card and I filed a claim with the fraud prevention team for an investigation.
ATM bank fraud is a huge hassle for tourists and it always seems to happen to me when traveling to Latin American countries. A few years ago my card was cloned in Brazil and I wrote about How To Deal With Debit And Credit Card Fraud Alerts While Traveling Overseas.
At this point, I was dumbfounded since I never once took out my Bank of America ATM Debit card from my wallet. I changed US Dollars to Dominican pesos in Cabarete and never used the ATM machine to withdraw money. Furthermore, I never used my debit card for my car rental or hotels and I’m still shocked on how my card was cloned and used fraudulently.
The only thing I can think of is that someone from housekeeping or hotel staff came into my room when I went out to the beach and copied down the numbers or swiped the card for ATM cloning purposes. Other than that, the card was with me the entire 3 days in the Dominican Republic. Til this day, it still remains a mystery on how fraudsters got ahold of my ATM card and managed to steal money from my bank account.
Have you ever had your ATM Card compromised in a foreign country?
It just happened to me as well. I was in the DR last week. I don’t think that anyone took my card, rather I believe scanning technology was used in an ATM I tried to use and couldn’t get money from. A couple who had used the machine before me and said it didn’t work lingered while I used it and I bet they set up the scan. we only realized it when we got home and looked at our online statement because they took small amounts so we didn’t get any alert