brainsluice | weblog

While being initially skeptical about ITV's entrapment show Ratrap, tonight it managed to shed a little light on last week's thievery incident: it appears that "shoulder surfing" is quite the common pastime for London's petty crooks. The set-up is simple. Criminals 'A' and 'B' stand behind a likely ATM-using punter, 'A' to the left and 'B' to the right. 'A' watches over the punter's shoulder and observes the PIN number, then drops a ten or twenty pound note at the punter's side and points out to the punter that they've dropped some money. As the victim bends down to retrieve it, 'B' reaches over and grabs the card and they abscond with the magic hunk of plastic.

If 'B' fails however, the pair often tail the victim and lift the card/wallet straight from their person - they've seen exactly where it's been placed, you see. So this jolly caper strikes me as one possible scenario for last Wednesday's events ... it's certainly feasible. Thus, there are two lessons to be learned here - watch your back at the cash machine and don't let anyone distract you, and cancel your card immediately after you notice it's been stolen (fortunately Andy had the cancellation hotline details on the back of his card so I could do it within minutes of it happening). Oh, and finally, don't carry your wallet in a stupidly accessible place like I did.

This has been a public service announcement on behalf of the Metropolitan Police.
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