A HSBC customer believes he has been the victim of a bank machine skimming attack after members of the public suffered a string of attacks earlier in the year.

The customer said that he went to the ATM at Harrington Hundreds to withdraw money he had earned over the Christmas period but could not access it.

When he spoke to a customer service representative at the bank he was told that it was most likely a skimming device had been attached to the machine.

The ATM had been targeted in September with a card reading device that can collect bank account information allowing access to funds.

Several HSBC customers were targeted and had funds removed from their accounts. The bank had to issue new credit and debit cards to its customers and replace the funds that were taken.

There is a police investigation into the matter.

The most recent victim told The Royal Gazette he felt like he had been targeted by unarmed robbers.

“I don’t feel safe going to the machine anymore,” he said.

He added: “If you know someone is skimming your machine you should have cameras. The customer service representative said it was a skimmer in the machine. It was supposed to have been fixed six weeks ago and it got my card.”

The customer has been told it could take between 20 days and eight weeks for him to have access to his funds which he describes as “completely inconvenient”.

HSBC did not confirm whether the ATM had been targeted but issued a statement warning and advising the public about possible fraudulent attacks on the Island.

A spokesperson said: “HSBC continues to work hard to ensure that its clients are protected. This includes ongoing monitoring to mitigate the risk associated with any skimming devices being attached to our ATMs.

“We have introduced a layered security framework, implementing products such as Trusteer Rapport malware protection, to ensure we are doing everything possible to protect our customers’ assets, via enhanced online banking protection.

“We have also been able to leverage the HSBC Group expertise via the introduction of the HSBC Mobile App and the HSBC Security device (with two factor authentication), which when coupled with Trusteer Rapport, has massively reduced online fraud. Our multiple layered security strategy discourages would be criminals and provides the bank with a greater opportunity in detecting possible compromised accounts.

“Specifically with respect to ATMs, customers can further protect themselves by ensuring that only they are able to view the transactions they are making and if there is any doubt as to whether this is the case, they should not proceed with the transaction at that particular ATM, at that time.

“At HSBC we continue to advise our customers on why they should also regularly monitor their own transactions. Should a customer suspect there is any suspicious activity on their accounts, we ask that they notify us immediately, so that we may begin to investigate the transactions on their behalf.”