similar incident happened in 2002
also in a BPI ATM in Sucat

| philstar.com

Ok, so the depositor went to the nearest BPI branch with a stand- alone ATM machine outside (most BPI branches in the Metro have) along Sucat Road in Parañaque, where the victim was at that time. After all the necessary keys for a withdrawal were pushed, the words "This machine does not dispense cash" came out on the screen. The victim upon reading the electronic advice that there was no cash in the machine patiently waited for the machine to give back the ATM card. But this did not happen and as the victim was trying to retrieve her card, someone came along and told the victim that a similar incident had happened to him and offered to help retrieve the card, but to no avail. Disappointed, both of them left.
So, it was a Sunday. You need cash. You go to the ATM machine to withdraw. Your card gets swallowed – no card, no cash. ATMs are convenient? Tell me about it.

But that’s not the whole story. When the victim went to the bank branch where the ATM machine that swallowed the card was located, the said BPI branch declared that the said card was nowhere to be found. And when the records were finally put together a whopping P80,000 plus have been withdrawn from the account from several ATM machines in the metro. Inadvertently, the victim was also apprised by one of the clerks that that was the fourth reported case on the same machine on that particular weekend. When the victim went further to report the incident to the mother branch of the account, some BPI insiders confided that the scam has been known (either only within the BPI alone or in the banking circles was not made known) and even has a name for it – Lebanese Scam.