legends · 4 min read ·
Dispute Form 4471
A bank dispute form lists twelve cash withdrawals made at night by a woman who is the cardholder at twenty-one.
**Ridgeway Bank · Card Dispute Form · Ref CD-4471**
**Cardholder:** Ellen Marsh · **Account ending:** 2081 · **Dispute type:** Cash withdrawal not recognised
**Date of dispute:** 19 Oct · **Amount disputed:** £1,240.00 (12 transactions)
· · ·
**Cardholder's statement**
I didn't withdraw any money. I was asleep at home. I'm a light sleeper and my husband was in the next room. I can't explain it. The transactions are listed on my statement, but I've been through the list many times, and none of the times match anything I did.
The first withdrawal was at 03:14. The last was at 03:37. The ATM was at Ridgeway High Street. I don't go out at night.
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**ATM transaction log (Ridgeway Bank, 19 Oct)**
- **Time · Machine · Amount · Status**
- 03:14 · HS-01 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:17 · HS-01 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:19 · HS-02 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:21 · HS-02 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:24 · HS-01 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:26 · HS-02 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:28 · HS-01 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:30 · HS-02 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:31 · HS-01 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:32 · HS-02 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:35 · HS-01 · £100 · Dispensed
- 03:37 · HS-02 · £140 · Dispensed
*Note: all twelve withdrawals used the card and PIN for account ending 2081. The PIN was entered correctly each time.*
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**Branch CCTV review (Ridgeway High Street, HS-01 and HS-02)**
Footage shows a woman standing at each machine in turn, facing the screen, in a long grey nightdress. Her face is visible. It is Ellen Marsh's face, but the eyes are open wide, and the expression is fixed. She does not look at the camera.
At 03:14 the woman's hand is on the card slot. The card is taken from her purse, which she holds in her other hand. Her purse is not the cardholder's purse. The cardholder's purse was on the bedside table at home all night, and was photographed by the police at 08:00.
*Reviewer's note: the woman's shadow on the wall of the ATM vestibule is very slightly out of time with her body, moving a fraction of a second behind her, the way an echo follows a voice.*
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**Fraud team note (Ridgeway Bank, 21 Oct)**
The disputed transactions have been checked against the cardholder's device data. The card was physically used at the ATM. The chip was read. The PIN was correct.
However, the cardholder's mobile phone recorded no location change overnight. The phone was on the bedside table. The cardholder's husband has confirmed the phone did not leave the room.
The fraud team has attached a reverse-engineered image of the chip data, which contains a second cardholder name, in the field normally reserved for the card issue date: *E. Marsh, aged 21, 1997.*
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**Cardholder's letter (Ellen Marsh, 23 Oct)**
*Dear Ridgeway Bank,*
*I've now had the card replaced. I've had my PIN changed. I've been told the withdrawals are "being investigated." I want you to know I've been to the ATM myself, on High Street, at 03:14 last night, because I woke up in the car, and the car was parked outside, with the engine running and a grey nightdress folded on the passenger seat.*
*I didn't take the money. I was only there to check. There's a young woman in the vestibule. She's about twenty-one, in a grey nightdress, and she's standing at the machine with her back to me. She's counting the notes as they come out, one at a time, very carefully, and she keeps saying, "That's mine. That's what I was saving for."*
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**Fraud team reply (Ridgeway Bank, 25 Oct)**
Dear Mrs. Marsh,
We have completed our investigation. Your claim has been declined. Our records show all transactions were authorised with the correct card and PIN, and the withdrawals were made at the ATM at the time stated.
We have, however, noted that your card's savings account, opened in 1997 in your name, has been used to pay the withdrawals. The account was never closed. The balance is £0.00. It has been credited, every night at 03:14, with the sum of £1,240, paid in by a young woman of twenty-one, who has been saving for something she has never explained.
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**Branch note (Ridgeway, 27 Oct)**
The savings account ending 2081 has been closed at the request of the holder, and the balance transferred to a new account in the name of E. Marsh, aged 21, 1997. The new account has no card. The customer is recorded as the depositor. Her signature is in the book, very neat, in a young, careful hand.
*Teller's note: the customer closed the account on 28 Oct and asked for the statements to be shredded. She did not ask for a receipt. The float balances to the penny.*