ATM spits out $20 bills instead of $5 bills.

Oct 19, 2000
17,861
4
81
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/...rous.atm.ap/index.html

An ATM at a northwest Louisiana truck stop gave out $20 bills instead of $5 bills, but authorities say they know who used it and plan to pursue the extra $7,000 the machine spit out.

DeSoto Parish sheriff's Lt. Toni Morris said the automated teller machine has records identifying the 26 people who received the extra cash during five days in late June and early July.

Annette Parker, a supervisor at Eagle's Truck Stop, said she unplugged the machine after overhearing conversations about the excess payments.

"The next morning when we had come back in, someone had plugged it back up," she said.

Morris said someone who did not work at the truck stop may have rigged the machine, which keeps records of when money is received and whose card is used.

Morris said charges could be brought against the people who got more money than was debited to their bank accounts.

As far as the bolded statement goes, how? I can't even understand why they are required to pay it back, unless a person knowingly went back time after time, knowing about this glitch.

Oh well, I'm sure people will disagree with me, but IMO, it should be the responsibility of the bank to properly maintain the ATM, and it should be their responsibility to make sure it could not be tampered with, and before I run out of breath, it should be their responsibility to monitor the ATM.

EDIT: Corrected the bolding of my entire post.
 

DainBramaged

Lifer
Jun 19, 2003
23,449
38
91
I would guess that they will only have to pay it back if they made repeated withdrawals but then, I don't know.
 

DainBramaged

Lifer
Jun 19, 2003
23,449
38
91
Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never seen an ATM that gave out anything but $20 bills...

There are a couple around here that spit out $10's but I've never seen one that does $5's either.
 

moshquerade

No Lifer
Nov 1, 2001
61,713
12
56
Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never seen an ATM that gave out anything but $20 bills...

same here.

also, these people are toast. they'll easily know who they are.
 

DainBramaged

Lifer
Jun 19, 2003
23,449
38
91
Originally posted by: moshquerade
Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never seen an ATM that gave out anything but $20 bills...

same here.

also, these people are toast. they'll easily know who they are.

Yeah, but say you were driving through and you wanted a quick $5 (for whatever reason) and you got $20. Where do you re-insert the cash?
 

moshquerade

No Lifer
Nov 1, 2001
61,713
12
56
Originally posted by: DainBramaged
Originally posted by: moshquerade
Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never seen an ATM that gave out anything but $20 bills...

same here.

also, these people are toast. they'll easily know who they are.

Yeah, but say you were driving through and you wanted a quick $5 (for whatever reason) and you got $20. Where do you re-insert the cash?

i dunno, bend over and let me see. :D

actually, i'd let the bank know. i mean, they are going to know anyway eventually.
 

cougar78

Platinum Member
Aug 30, 2004
2,461
0
86
www.forthinc.com
I used to work for a bank software company. Between the internal journal on the atm as well as the system on the bank end to track all the transactions, they can easily identify the transactions of those that got 20's instead of 5's.

Majority of atms are controlled from a remote computer system, so unless this is a specific sort of atm like a true dialup (you use it and hear it dial out once you have requested your transaction), someone on the remote end made the change to what the atm saw as 20's and 5's. The other possibility, the person that replenishes the atm screwed up and put the 20's in the cassette that is identified as the 5's cassette. Somebody involved with that atm is gonna be fired hehe.
 

tk149

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2002
7,256
1
0
Originally posted by: blurredvision
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/...rous.atm.ap/index.html

An ATM at a northwest Louisiana truck stop gave out $20 bills instead of $5 bills, but authorities say they know who used it and plan to pursue the extra $7,000 the machine spit out.

DeSoto Parish sheriff's Lt. Toni Morris said the automated teller machine has records identifying the 26 people who received the extra cash during five days in late June and early July.

Annette Parker, a supervisor at Eagle's Truck Stop, said she unplugged the machine after overhearing conversations about the excess payments.

"The next morning when we had come back in, someone had plugged it back up," she said.

Morris said someone who did not work at the truck stop may have rigged the machine, which keeps records of when money is received and whose card is used.

Morris said charges could be brought against the people who got more money than was debited to their bank accounts.

As far as the bolded statement goes, how? I can't even understand why they are required to pay it back, unless a person knowingly went back time after time, knowing about this glitch.

Oh well, I'm sure people will disagree with me, but IMO, it should be the responsibility of the bank to properly maintain the ATM, and it should be their responsibility to make sure it could not be tampered with, and before I run out of breath, it should be their responsibility to monitor the ATM.

The law in general says that unless property is deliberately abandoned, you have to give it back. It's no different than if a cashier accidentally handed you a $20 bill in change instead of a $5, or if you accidentally paid a bill twice. Either way, the unjustly enriched party has to give it back.

 

DainBramaged

Lifer
Jun 19, 2003
23,449
38
91
Originally posted by: moshquerade
Originally posted by: DainBramaged
Originally posted by: moshquerade
Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never seen an ATM that gave out anything but $20 bills...

same here.

also, these people are toast. they'll easily know who they are.

Yeah, but say you were driving through and you wanted a quick $5 (for whatever reason) and you got $20. Where do you re-insert the cash?

i dunno, I'll bend over and look. :D

:camera:
 

Squisher

Lifer
Aug 17, 2000
21,207
66
91
Originally posted by: tk149
Originally posted by: blurredvision
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/...rous.atm.ap/index.html

An ATM at a northwest Louisiana truck stop gave out $20 bills instead of $5 bills, but authorities say they know who used it and plan to pursue the extra $7,000 the machine spit out.

DeSoto Parish sheriff's Lt. Toni Morris said the automated teller machine has records identifying the 26 people who received the extra cash during five days in late June and early July.

Annette Parker, a supervisor at Eagle's Truck Stop, said she unplugged the machine after overhearing conversations about the excess payments.

"The next morning when we had come back in, someone had plugged it back up," she said.

Morris said someone who did not work at the truck stop may have rigged the machine, which keeps records of when money is received and whose card is used.

Morris said charges could be brought against the people who got more money than was debited to their bank accounts.

As far as the bolded statement goes, how? I can't even understand why they are required to pay it back, unless a person knowingly went back time after time, knowing about this glitch.

Oh well, I'm sure people will disagree with me, but IMO, it should be the responsibility of the bank to properly maintain the ATM, and it should be their responsibility to make sure it could not be tampered with, and before I run out of breath, it should be their responsibility to monitor the ATM.

The law in general says that unless property is deliberately abandoned, you have to give it back. It's no different than if a cashier accidentally handed you a $20 bill in change instead of a $5, or if you accidentally paid a bill twice. Either way, the unjustly enriched party has to give it back.

And, I was going to that sometime next week, when I got around to it. Kinda like the way the bank takes its time to deposit your money or inform you of an overdraft.
 

cpals

Diamond Member
Mar 5, 2001
4,494
0
76
Originally posted by: TipsyMcStagger
I've never been to an ATM that gave out bills other than a $20.

After reading further the digg story, some of you guys are confused. The ATM never 'had' anything other than $20 bills either... when the machine is reprogrammed, it is made to believe that all it has are $5 bills so if someone requests $40 from the machine, it will spit out 8 bills, which are actually $20 bills because it thinks they are all 5s.

Edit (Source) Sep 2006:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060920/194130.shtml

There was some buzz last week after CNN showed a video of an ATM machine that had been programmed to believe it had $5 bills instead of $20s (so any withdrawal actually gave you 4X the money you asked for).
 

AnonymouseUser

Diamond Member
May 14, 2003
9,943
107
106
I say throw the book at them.

EDIT >>

Originally posted by: cpals
After reading further the digg story, some of you guys are confused. The ATM never 'had' anything other than $20 bills either... when the machine is reprogrammed, it is made to believe that all it has are $5 bills so if someone requests $40 from the machine, it will spit out 8 bills, which are actually $20 bills because it thinks they are all 5s.

That changes things if that were the case, but anyone doing more than one transaction is a thief.
 

AgentJean

Banned
Jun 7, 2006
1,280
0
0
Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never seen an ATM that gave out anything but $20 bills...

Wachovia used to give out 5s and 20s, that's the reason why I opened a checking account with them. After First Union bought Walkalloverya they only stock $20s now.
 

crt1530

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2001
3,198
0
0
That happened at an ATM on my university's campus years ago. Guys from my dorm cleaned that thing out. I think the whole group made several hundred dollars worth of profit. Nobody ever had their bank account balances adjusted.
 

biggestmuff

Diamond Member
Mar 20, 2001
8,201
2
0
Larger cities typically have the ATMs that dispense only $20. It's when you start going to small, poor communities that you will find ATMs that dispense $5 and $10s. The town I grew up in (less than 2000 people) has ATM machines that spits out fives and tens.
 

AnonymouseUser

Diamond Member
May 14, 2003
9,943
107
106
Originally posted by: Ronstang
Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never seen an ATM that gave out anything but $20 bills...

This is in Louisiana. Think about it.

Nearly two years ago, we posted a story about how easy it was to find the user manuals for certain automatic teller machines online, and then use the default passwords listed in them to reprogram the machines so they'd give out $20 bills when they thought they were giving out $5s or $1s. The fix for this was easy -- change the default passcode -- but apparently it wasn't hard to find machines whose owners' hadn't changed them. Somehow, it really isn't too surprising to find out that, despite the publicity, some ATM owners still haven't bothered to change them, and are getting hit by the same scam.

Text
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,679
11,023
136
Originally posted by: Ronstang
Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never seen an ATM that gave out anything but $20 bills...

This is in Louisiana. Think about it.

ROFL! Yeah, I thought about that after I posted...;)