Answered3 years ago

What could cause multiple ATMs to simultaneously fail in rural Thailand?

ATM issues rural Thailand banking ATM scams Thai banks currency exchange

Jack ****************

asked Jan 2, 2024

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Anecdotal and maybe evidence of paranoia but maybe interesting... Out in rural Thailand and needed money. Found a Lotus with 3 external ATMs. Different banks. I was in a hurry and left my phone in my car. At first there was nobody around. First atm had an out of order sign. I choose the next which was SCB. While I was using it a woman went to the third. I went through the entire transaction up to the "get your cash" step - machine made noises but no cash dispensed. The same thing happened to the woman at the next machine. I went back to my car to get my camera to get pics of the ATM number and in the 20 seconds that took a while crowd of people had appeared around the machine. I was upset and in a hurry so didn't think about it until later.

Maybe some kind of scam where they jam the door and then do a transaction and pull out your money too? Or just weird coincidence?

By the time I looked at my bank the charge was already reversed.

Answer summary

A user recounts an incident in rural Thailand where several ATMs failed to dispense cash, leading to speculation about possible ATM scams or malfunctioning machines. The narrative includes personal experiences and comments from others who faced similar issues, indicating a pattern of ATM-related problems in various locations, including Pattaya. Some users suggest it could be a coincidence while others emphasize the possibility of old or faulty machines.

13 repliesnewest first

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Tony *********

I have had two situations when I tried to withdraw money from an ATM in Thailand and nothing came out, but the money was still debited from my account. The first was maybe 3 years ago when I try to withdraw 10K baht. No money, but I got a notification on the banking app on my phone that the money had being taken out of my account. But after about 10 minutes I got another notification that showed 10K going back into the account. So there was obviously some kind of error that was corrected. The last time was about 3 weeks ago when again I tried to take money out of an ATM but nothing came out. The account was debited but this time it didn't correct the error so I had to call the bank and they said they would investigate. After a couple of days I got a call from the bank saying there had been a mistake and they credited my account. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't contacted the bank or whether the error would have been eventually corrected. All the ATMs are connected to a network so they send the data back from the machines to the bank's computer system which reconciles all the transactions and checks for any errors.

3 years ago

Jack ****************

@Tony ********

yeah, actually in my transaction history I show the credit before the debit funny enough. Not worried about the money, just statistically weird do see all the ATMs down and two, from different banks, fail in the same way at the same time and then suddenly many people trying to access the broken machines. Weird stuff happens all the time and it means nothing. But I can't help but wonder.

3 years ago

Tony *********

@Jack ***************

maybe the network line was shared by all the machines and it was the line that went down so it affected all of them.

3 years ago

Greg ********

Hi I had the same thing in Pattaya.. bank too the money from my Australia account.. I went to the bank branch to complain..treated like shit.so went to make a police report. The ATM was replaced with a new one, which I have photos of..Went back to Thai bank . again treated like shit.i was told to get into contact with my Australia bank and lodge complaint.. after four months I can't get my money back.... Good luck..greg

3 years ago

Colin **********

Probably dodgy ATM, some are quite old, never heard of a scam especially in the countryside, maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok

3 years ago

Jack ****************

@Colin *********

yeah, even if it was a thing I bet most transactions here are 1k or whatever.

3 years ago

Colin **********

@Jack ***************

BTW all ATMs would have a phone number for call centre to call, most bank have an English option.

3 years ago

Jack ****************

@John **********

sort of. I heard the flappy flappy noise, but the door wouldn't open. Again what made it WEIRD was it happening to the lady next to me at a different brand ATM at the same time.

3 years ago

John ***********

@Jack ***************

Pretty sure if you withdraw money and it comes out but you fail somehow to get it (forget etc) it returns inside and you are not debited. Perhaps that happened to you.

3 years ago

Jack ****************

@Colin *********

I was credited the money back immediately. Just strange.

3 years ago

Lulu ******

Maybe just a wonky ATM machine.

3 years ago

Jack ****************

@Lulu *****

maybe just two wonky ATM machines next to one another with a third out of order. But yes maybe.

3 years ago

Lulu ******

@Jack ***************

My Son landed in Thailand back in October. Wasn’t there a week and an ATM he had been using sucked up his card. He was told their ATMs are not serviced daily something like every 30 days.

He panicked when it happened called me at like 3am.

3 years ago