People always sound like a douche when they say "In Europe...."

But, in Europe, most ATMs dispense any variety of bills, not just one denomination. Some banks in the US have machines that can as well. It's just most Americans are content with lackluster service so why should banks go through the added expense?

carrot: If they used a stolen card why would they bother with altering the machine?

I think it works more like:

1) Buy a debit card in a cash transaction
2) Go to the target location(s) retrieving 20 times your investment
3) Rinse, repeat

/no risk of getting caught stealing cards, no need to determine PIN


Yes, in past scams, prepaid debit cards have been used. Then the ATM is reprogrammed due to a default password found with a google search and the maximum ammount is taken from the ATM.

/Unavailable for comment.

When they first came out in the 80's they could only dispense twenties. We called them coke machines.

theres a little stop and shop type store outside of this town on the way to the next that will actually give you EXACT change for any amount of money, even $35.27.

I just heard on the radio here in Lincoln that one of these guys just got blown away by the owner of the store he was stealing from, so I don't think it worked out to well.

My credit union has ATMs that dispense change.

Completely useless, but you have to try it once.

I thought ATM meant Automatic Twenty Machine.

/At least it seems that way.

Layzerd:
That's why I love Wal-Mart/Target/Home Depot..... $.79 for a pack of gum. $50 dollars cash back...total charge $50.79 and no "fee" attached!

I do the same. One of the grocery stores in the central New York area, where I used to live, started adding a "cash-back fee," which varied based on how much merchandise you bought, but it was never $0. I sought out the store manager, and explained that this $0.75 transaction fee is going to drive my $300 weekly grocery purchase to their competition across the street.

"But our prices are lower!" he said. "Isn't the $0.75 worth the savings you get?"

"Isn't losing $0.75 in profit more than offset by keeping my $300 in business? Don't try and bait-and-switch me at the checkout stand, slyly tacking on a fee after the cashier asks if I want cash back, as she's done for years. Your competition doesn't do that, and further, they don't require a 'marketing data collectionMembership Card' to get the advertised prices."

He just stared at me, confused.

Sometimes beating every nickel out of your customer has the opposite of the desired effect....

highendmighty: Well That story sucked.

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wanted for questioning

Isn't "Teller" inaccurate? I mean, the redundant automated teller machine machine doesn't actually "tell" you anything, does it?

Am I right?

NorCalLos: Isn't "Teller" inaccurate? I mean, the redundant automated teller machine machine doesn't actually "tell" you anything, does it?

Am I right?

Unless you get the newer ones with the obnoxiously loud speaker.

taurusowner: dj_bigbird: While I am against theft, people who use the default password/PIN/etc that is in an owners manual without changing it deserve to get pwn3d.

What? When you get an ATM card, your bank asks you to create a PIN while you're applying for the account/card. There is no such thing a a "default PIN" for ATM cards.

I see by your next post that you realize he was discussing something different, but you're also wrong on this.

None of my banks have asked me to create a PIN.

I get the ATM card in the mail and a few days later an envelope showing the default PIN shows up. At that point I can call the phone number on the paper and change it to another PIN number if I want.

Is anyone else annoyed by the WaMu machines that try to be all hipster with the lingo and have silly prompts that are different than any other machine in the world, hence requiring you to actually read each multi-paragraph-long question before hitting a button.

"Hey bro, how you doin' today?

(press "OK," for OK, or 0-9, 9 being the best.)

Can I get you a copy of the receipt when we're done? Not good for the tree or the landfill, but you could recycle it. If you're not one for keeping up you checkbook ledger you might need it.

BTW... ATM is short for Automatic Teller Machine, so ATM "Machine" is redundant.

The Ghost Of Tom Joad

I just heard on the radio here in Lincoln that one of these guys just got blown away by the owner of the store he was stealing from, so I don't think it worked out to well.


In that part of the country, you just don't sit in John Wilkes' booth.

Strip Clubs have atms that spit out $1.

/not that I have ever seen your sister or mother on stage
//snootch

... debit card.. debit machine.

That's what me and my friends call 'em.

MrJesus: MAC

MAC machine? Oh, you mean TYME machine...

BigDumbGuy: If they used a stolen card why would they bother with altering the machine?

Exactly! This entire idea is fraught with problems!

If you use your own card - you're going to get busted, so easily. If you have a stolen card, then why go through all this trouble - it's not even your money!

I prefer my cash in $100s, anything less takes up way too much room.

Real news: something happened in Lincoln, Nebraska and it made the front page of Fark.

Many people think that teller machines actually print money. Don't you hate it when you get money and the ink is still wet? ;-)

Observatory: ATM?


2 words: Teagan Presley

*checks wife's porn folder*

/agrees.

All the ATMs at Kent State in Ohio can dispense singles.

FTFA: I said if they come into my store today, they're not leaving today, and sure enough they came in and we got them," Lobo said.

Lobo said the two men got away in a car, ...

Sigh.

Withdrawals from ATMs are ok, but I don't like making deposits.

BigDumbGuy: If they used a stolen card why would they bother with altering the machine?

$300~500 limit on daily withdrawals in $20s == $6,000 ~$10,000 when the machine thinks it's stuffed with $1s.

Approves of twenties.

dj_bigbird: Isn't "Automated" redundant when talking about a "machine?"

Um no, they could make you turn a handcrank to get your money.

2006 called, they want their story back.

Linky. (new window/tab)

ultraholland: Approves of twenties.

That's Fraud! :)

i do know of some ATM's that dispense singles, one of them has a $10 surcharge, it's in a strip club.

also the people that altered the programming to make the ATM think the $20's were $10's likely used a prepaid debit card to do the withdrawal, no way to trace those. however the people that came back later would have been using their own cards, and yes the it can easily be tracked and yes it is considered theft if an ATM overdispenses and you take the cash.

also, in order to accomplish this, the person that changed the denomination would have to have the master password to the ATM, the issue is most people with ATM machines don't want to change anything they don't have to so they leave this stuff at default, because they're idiots. any new machine which is PCI compliant, or even VISA for that matter, will not even operate without having the master password changed.

/works for a major ATM distributor
//see's crap like this on a daily basis

I've never heard of an ATM that did anything smaller than 10s

I guess the new "Tamper data" add-on is out...

My buddy has a private ATM in his business.
Its super easy to get in the programmers menu. Most of them it involves pushing a couple of the unmarked color/side buttons in an order, his is two... Enter + Green at the same time. He left his code the default.

The ATM's can also be setup to accept calls remotely(or internet based, whatever the model uses), so a smart H@X0R would program the ATM to accept incoming calls, temporarily reprogram it to call their cell, get the number, then just reprogram it remotely instead of coming in

There is one in state college PA that dispenses silver change.

Quick, I need $.75 for quarter draft night.

$3 transaction fee - ACCEPT

brilliant

As has been said earlier, many newer PNC Bank ATMs in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas at least dispense singles. The one in my office building has done so for the last 2 years at least.

Hugh2d2: Diebold machines were able to change votes for Kerry into votes for Bush and this is even easier.