Beware cash point con

The warning follows an attempt to steal a cash card from a Marlborough couple by crooks using a technique known as the Lebanese Loop.

Thieves tried it at the NatWest Bank in the High Street on Thursday but were foiled because after the machine appeared to have swallowed the cash card, the wife remained by the machine while her husband went into the bank for help.

The loop named because a gang from the Lebanon first starting using it is a simple strip of plastic that the thieves insert into the card slot of the cash dispensers.

When legitimate users place their cards in the machines they get a message saying it has been withheld.

The crooks have an accomplice standing close by who offers to help the cash machine customer and either asks them what their pin number is, or watches as they first key it in.

When the customer leaves, the accomplice removes the loop together with the card and, being in possession of the pin number, goes off to other cash points to withdraw money.

Two months ago a Marlborough family had their current account emptied by crooks using this ploy.

Last Thursday the couple were luckier. A bank employee checked the machine and found the Lebanese loop still in place with the customer's card still in it. It was safely retrieved and returned.

The bank official said the lips of the loop, which prevent it disappearing into the slot, were visible and warned customers to look out for it.

Police and banks are warning all cash point users to avoid using machines if anyone is standing close by.

They warn customers never to disclose their pin numbers.

Police have warned that another method of stealing cards, which has been successfully used in Wiltshire, is to distract the customer by dropping a £10 note by their feet. In the second it takes to bend down and pick up the note, the card is grabbed from the machine although the customer thinks it has been withheld by the cash point.