Bank found sadly wanting as La Marina (Alicante) couple fight penpushers

THE Euro Weekly News recently spoke to Mrs A, whose husband was robbed at a cashpoint in San Fulgencio.

Although she gave us her name, she asked for this to be withheld as she and her husband fear that the person who robbed them of €1,400 could target their home.

On the morning of Saturday June 25, Mr A went to take out money from an ATM. 

As always, he was careful and made sure that no-one was around but once the card was in, he felt someone behind him. 

A young man who spoke first in Spanish and then in English, constantly jostled him, finally managing reach the keypad.

“It’s swallowed your card,” he said told Mr A.

Mrs A immediately rang Bankinter to stop the card. This was anything but simple and she managed to get through on the fifth attempt.

Explaining that she wanted to stop a Visa debit card she was put through to a call centre and spoke to someone with far-from-perfect English for approximately an hour. 

She assumed – who wouldn’t? – that the card was cancelled but looked online and found that €1,400 had disappeared from their joint account. Despite a €1,000 withdrawal limit she saw that the cashpoint thief also managed to obtain €400 in a cashback operation at a Gran Alacant betting shop.

Monday June 27 brought an odyssey of telephone calls to Bankinter in Madrid, as local staff insisted they were not authorised to deal with the matter.

The Madrid office maintained that little could be done because the transactions were made with the correct PIN number.  They even suggested that this was a put-up job between Mr A and the thief in a ruse to obtain €1,400.

They also said that Mrs A did not try to stop the card until 11.50am and the first withdrawal was made at 11.42am.

The couple were told to make a formal Denuncia, which they have now done, learning at the same time that the police had received seven similar complaints.

While hoping to eventually recover the stolen money, Mrs A told us that she also wanted to warn others to take care at cashpoints.

“Meanwhile we have had to borrow money from friends to pay off the overdrawn €400 and our bills,” she said. 

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