Fraud at Chapala Bancomer ATM's this morning

I was at the ATM's at 8:40 this morning getting cash from my Schwab card to deposit back into my Bancomer account. There was a man huddled close to the middle ATM who never moved or completed any transaction while I was there, at least I heard no noise from his ATM. The right hand ATM was out of money when I tried $7500 so I went to the left hand one around this man and tried $7000, which it gave me. I then went around him again to deposit the $7000 into my account using the depositing ATM on the right. Shortly thereafter I got a fraud alert from Schwab that a duplicate of my card had been made and 5 different transactions had been attempted in the 3 minutes I had been there ranging from $264.47 US to $401.00 US, which when calculated with the ATM fee and today's rate, turn out to be even peso amounts from $7500 on down.

Fortunately Schwab's system recognized two cards from the same account being used simultaneously and shut the fraudulent debit card number down...which of course includes mine. Not a problem for me, I always preach to everyone coming here to have 2 or 3 backups so one isn't stuck waiting for a new card to arrive and I also live by that rule.

Just posting this to see if anyone else experienced fraud there early this morning. I'm also reporting it to the bank manager this afternoon to see if the ATM camera captured him or if he had covered the lens.

Follow up: the bank manager was sympathetic to my report but as usual is powerless to do anything. She told me to report it to Mexico City and the Ministerio Publico but since I had no loss, that effort would lead nowhere. I just thought they might want to review their camera footage to see if they could spot the guy, but noooo.

Every time I have been in there there has been an employee in that lobby where the ATMs are. So there was a skimmer and the bank manager wouldn’t do anything?

It was right after they opened the doors, only the cleaning lady was mopping the floor around us. The employees were still milling about inside the lobby. Good point, don't use those ATM's unless the usual employee is present!

Nothing odd there this morning. I never withdraw from my US account at Bancomer because they have the WORST rates of any local bank. I withdraw at CI Banco or HSBC and deposit the funds into our Bancomer account.

I had heard that comment in the past as well, so before I ever used any bank regularly, I did a test about 7 years ago. I withdrew $500 pesos from each of these banks all the same day: Bancomer, Banorte (used to have ATM's in Oxxo), Banamex, CIBanco, Santander, and ScotiaBank. Another friend told me he always got a horrible rate from Bancomer compared to CIBanco. I checked his math formula for figuring the rate and he was ignoring the included machine fee ($81.20 vs 17.40.) When I did my test that day and divided the $500 plus the machine fee into the amount showing up on my US bank account, all of these banks had given me exactly the same exchange rate right down to the hundredth. I only use Bancomer and CIBanco now, depending if on foot or in the car, sometimes Santander, but the rate for me has always been the same between them. One local financial wizard told me they all use the same clearing house so the actual rate is the same. What else you get hit with is the variable, ATM fees, ITF, out of US network fee, etc.

Great info to have phxfunguy! We bank with USAA so our ATM fees are refunded at the end of the month, but I still hate paying them at the time I withdraw. I wonder why they post Buy and Sell rates on various websites if it all ends up being the same rate when you withdraw cash?

There are some small advantages of getting cash the old fashioned way:  going into the bank in person and getting it from the clerk who takes it out of your account there.  No fees at all.  No chance of card getting cloned.

I just read about restaurants in California where only cards and not cash have been  acceptable. Now laws are being passed against the practice, since it is discriminatory.  Interesting, considering how many restaurants here in Mexico will only accept cash.

Old myths are hard to kill off. For years folks in the know have said that the exchange rate is NOT set by the ATM bank but rather VISA. But this doesn't keep folks from claiming that Bank1 is better than Bank2. NOT. Yes, one should indeed watch what each bank charges for their ATM fees, unless their banking institution like mine refunds all charges, but .......