Police in Glasgow are urging bank customers to be extra vigilant following a spate of unauthorised cash withdrawals using cloned cards from ATMs over the past 10 days.
Since Monday 18 April 2005, there have been 14 reported cases of unauthorised withdrawals from ATMs situated in and around the Byres Road area of the city.
In every circumstance the account holder had been in possession of their cash card at the time the withdrawals were made.
Sergeant Carol Grainger of West End Police Office in Glasgow, told reporters that although card cloning happens across the country, the number reported in the area have all been in a short space of time, which is unusual.
Grainger says it is not known when or where the cloning of the cards occurred.
It was not disclosed exactly how much money was stolen from customers' accounts, but according to local press reports it amounted to thousands of pounds.
Figures from Apacs show that cash machine fraud shot up 81% last year to £74.6m, compared to £41.1m in 2003. The surge has led to banks such as Barclays, Abbey and First Direct to reduce daily cash withdrawal limits at cash machines. Barclays has also introduced anti-skimming technology at some of its ATMs in a bid to cut fraud levels.