What can a person do with your bank pin number?

Question

I was at my bank's ATM making a deposit and had just entered my pin number when I looked to my left and noticed a man had crept up and was watching me enter the numbers. It was broad daylight and he made no threatening moves but I withdrew my card and left. I was wondering if he could access my account only knowing the numbers. My online pin is different from my card pin.

Answer 1

You did the right thing, even though he was probably harmless.  No, he can't access your account with only PIN numbers.  No one can.

Answer 2

Report it and change your PIN immediately.

Answer 3

Unless he had a way to clone the magnetic stripe on your card, the PIN alone would be useless. But there have been cases where someone has inserted a slim device into the slot that can read the magnetic stripe.  So if anything seems unusual about the slot, be cautious about anyone watching or any cameras (video).