Defeating a digital safe

[Mr.Slant]

@t-bonham@scc.net

That’s not as effective: the bank has a record of who withdrew money & how much; they could just debit your account for the 3x amount extra you got. And banks would do this, and if you disputed it you would have to fight with them about it.

Back when I worked for a big bank, only a few of our ATMs actually videotaped the transactions; now I think almost all do that. So the bank would likely have video of you getting the extra money. (Also, they probably have video of whoever accessed the ATM with the Admin password & changed the tray denominations. And on at least some of the more modern ATMs, the Admin password is not accepted if entered on the public keys – you have to unlock the ATM and use an internal keyboard, or use the public keyboard while the machine is open & unlocked).

Based on experience in the bank security field, while your former employer may do transaction capture (pictures to go with each transaction, rather than just on a timer) on all ATM transactions I am very, very close to 100% certain that at least some remaining ATMs in the US aren’t doing that.
There are a few configurations of DVR / modem / data comm / ATM where capturing transactions is simply impossible.

[Mr.Slant]

Also, I was in charge of the complaints line at a company that serviced ATMs.
One day the guards screwed up when swapping new currency into the ATM, and it was doing the ‘dispense 10 times as much money’ trick for users.
The ATM ran out of cash in record time.
Amusingly, one of the first 10 people that used the ATM while it was malfunctioning called me to complain.
I called the convenience store operators that the ATM was located within and tried to get the manager to put the machine out of service, but no one working at the store (suburbs of Chicago) actually spoke English.
“Please call back in morning, speak to manager” was all they knew, apparently.

[Patch]

@TriPolar

I always keep a copy of the combination carefully locked in the safe in case of such a circumstance. I also keep a wire coat hanger in the trunk of my car in case I lock my keys in it.

I used to keep a wire cat hanger attached to the underside of a car I used to own in case I ever locked the keys in it. Came in handy once.

[Mr.Slant]

You’re in the habit of hanging cats? How is that humane?

[Chronos]

No, he only hangs wire cats.

[TriPolar]

@Patch

I used to keep a wire cat hanger attached to the underside of a car I used to own in case I ever locked the keys in it. Came in handy once.

Have I got a threadfor you!

[geehell]

Thanks for all the great ideas. I’ll let you guys know what I come up with.

[md2000]

Presumably someone planning a money scam by changing an ATM would go and set up a few bogus bank accounts ahead of time; load them with cash (i.e. deposit $100 at an bank ATM a few days ahead of time to get $400 back) then withdraw the limit with each account/card. Which begs (sorry, I mean brings up) the question, what do you have to do to get a bank account which can’t be traced back to you? Identity theft? Set it up 6 months earlier so the video tapes are erased and the tellers don’t remember? If you can get the stolen bank card/PIN to use at the same time instead, well, it’s a jackpot situation. The only question is what does one of these ATM’s hold?