ATM/Robbery Is this a myth or truth?
By celestos
@celestos (814)
United States
July 10, 2009 11:47pm CST
I read somewhere that this method was broadcasted on Fox TV. If you are withdrawing from your atm or bank machine and you are held up there is a way to contact the police without the robber knowing. By entering your pin number in backwards the broadcast claimed that the machine will notify the authorities to help you. The card you enter in the machine is suppose to recognize the backwards pin number as a call for help. Is there any truth in this and if so does anyone know where more can be found on it?
4 responses
@sweetashoney (3594)
• United States
11 Jul 09
I have never heard of this before, but if it works that would be great. My trouble would probaly be that I'd be so scared that I wouldn't remember what my numbers were backwards.
1 person likes this
@sweetashoney (3594)
• United States
11 Jul 09
Your right, I'd probably even ask then how much they they wanted.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
11 Jul 09
It is partially a myth. The technology is there but the banking industry isn't interested in it. It was actually conceived in 1994 and called SAFETYPIN but nobody wants to do it. Snopes has a very good explanation here:
http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/pinalert.asp
I think it would be a very good idea but the banking industry isn't interested in our safety. By withdrawing money due to a robbery, they can probably profit from all the fees they'll charge you for bounced checks. They actually have software that lets them maneuver your account in such a way that the most checks will bounce and they can get 10 fees instead of just one or two.
1 person likes this
@michaeldadona (5684)
• Malaysia
11 Jul 09
I don't believe it because how about card with a palindromic PIN e.g. 3993, 2112, 2828? Meaning that, will type back the original PIN. This is the only one my argument in this case.
1 person likes this
@entrepinoy (709)
• Philippines
11 Jul 09
If this can be implemented in all countries then this will be a great help to prevent theft and robbery.
