Barely a week after we last reported a false front on the Tesco Cash Point it has happened again. If you used the Cash Point at the Tesco at St Margarets Road until approximately 2:30pm today, please change your PIN number and check with your bank.

A safer alternative is to withdraw cash over the counter at the Post Office just down the road.

The following details of the false front were passed along by a resident, Ed Randall:

A shocking thing happened to the cashpoint in Tesco St.Margarets - I hope you can run something about it on your website… people need to know, and be aware.

I went to use the cashpoint outside Tesco St.Margarets this afternoon, Saturday 20th May around 14:15. I was about to put my card in the machine but I thought something seemed oddly unfamiliar about it (I’ve used it many times before) so I stood back for a moment and asked the man behind me what he thought; He said no, there’s nothing wrong with it and proceeded to insert his own card and withdraw money.

I was not convinced however, the entire fascia of the right hand side of the machine seemed to be a separate section which you could get your fingers behind, rather than the single-piece, solid metal fascia I thought it should be. I went home and called my card provider; After drilling through countless menus and holding for a short while, I spoke to someone, who put me straight through to the fraud department - the man there described back to me exactly what I had seen, and told me that he would send the police round immediately.

I walked back in to St. Margarets and the police were already there - they were looking around a bit confused, as there was nothing wrong with the cash machine. It now looked completely different (back to its old familiar self) - the front fascia was flat and the card entry slot was more streamlined, better manufactured.

I spoke to the police and told them that it had been me who reported it; They said that someone would have been watching - possibly it was the man to whom I spoke - and he would have realised that I was suspicious, removed the device and disappeared as soon as possible.

(The great quote from the WPC was “Frankly I wouldn’t use any Tesco cashpoints round here if I were you!”)

The police promptly departed but I spoke so several people around, one woman told me that she had had difficulty removing her card from the machine. There must have been hundreds of cards skimmed by that device today as it is the only cashpoint in the area, St.Margarets is extremely busy on a Saturday.

A neighbour has just mentioned to me - did you know that you can withdraw cash over the counter from the Post Office in St Margarets? - a much safer and more secure alternative that I shall use whenever possible in future.

So the security-vigilant were unfortunately defeated this time. But I’d really appreciate it if you could run an article on this as soon as possible, in particular it would help to alert anyone who used that cash machine on Saturday 20th May up until about 14:15 that they should probably at least change their PIN number, check their bank statements for any suspicious withdrawls and contact their bank if necessary.