CON artists have robbed locals of thousands of dollars in recent weeks after raiding accounts in the latest ATM and eftpos scams to target the banking sector.

Reports of credit card "skimming" and the like have been rife across the nation of late and it is clear regional areas are not safe from those behind the frauds.

The Daily News has learned customers across a range of financial providers have been stung, in some cases losing several thousand dollars as a result of what have been described as "fraudulent card-based transactions".

One unconfirmed report yesterday was of a false transaction involving $100,000.

Detectives from Toowoomba are investigating but all bank customers have been warned to be vigilant and regularly check their accounts for unusual activity.

One local bank customer in the region who was hit the weekend before last said she had been shocked to receive a Sunday morning phone call from her financial provider.

"They told us they had frozen our debit account after detecting a change in our spending habits," the customer, who declined to be identified, said.

"One minute the transactions were all local and the next they were happening at Bondi Beach.

"They withdrew the money in $600 lots over a period from noon on the Saturday to about 7pm that night.

"Our bank has a watchdog that monitors account activity and they were able to pick it up, but not before we'd had around $2000 cleaned out."

The good news is that if your bank can confirm the fraudulent activity has been committed by outside individuals you stand to get your money back.

Warwick Credit Union spokeswoman Helen Roche said like other institutions the credit union has a 24-7 "fraud monitoring system" in place.

"Card transactions are electronically monitored and any spending patterns considered abnormal will prompt direct contact with the cardholder to ascertain authenticity of the transaction," she said.

"In the event of fraudulent transactions occurring due to no fault of the customer, we then work with the customer to have their funds reimbursed as soon as possible.

"It is critical that everyone regularly monitors transactions on their accounts, wherever they may be, and contact their financial institution if they notice transactions which they don't believe are genuine, or if they have any concerns."

She said given the huge number of card-based transactions happening every day, both face to face and internet based, the actual numbers of fraudulent transactions happening locally could be considered to be "minimal".