Ok ! I got this mail with the subject "ATM thieves - Read the IMP Message bellow" today and wanted to dig up a little on this topic.
Read carefully
WHEN A THIEF FORCES YOU TO TAKE MONEY FROM THE ATM, DO NOT ARGUE OR RESIST,
YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW WHAT HE OR SHE MIGHT DO TO YOU. WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IS TO
PUNCH YOUR PIN IN THE REVERSE, I..E IF YOUR PIN IS 1254, YOU PUNCH 4521.
THE MOMENT YOU PUNCH IN THE REVERSE, THE MONEY WILL COME OUT BUT WILL BE
STUCK INTO THE MACHINE HALF WAY OUT AND IT WILL ALERT THE POLICE WITHOUT THE NOTICE OF THE THIEF.
EVERY ATM HAS IT; IT IS SPECIALLY MADE TO SIGNIFY DANGER AND HELP. NOT EVERYONE IS AWARE OF THIS.
FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND THOSE YOU CARE.
Is this true!! No chance..If there was something like this, we wud have got this info from our banks. After a little bit of googleing, I realized that this was a proposed solution to save ATM users in 1994 by Josheph Zigher, a Chicago businessman. But this did not interest the bankers. They had their own reasons to reject:
* Firstly, if this system was in place and alerted the police, by the time the rescue team reaches the spot, the attackers would have gone.
* Any one who is threatened with a gun on his/her head would have trouble entering the PIN in reverse, so no money from the ATM & further irritating the attacker.
* Incase this system is in place, what if people enter the PIN reversed by mistake..sending a false alarm to the police.
So, this system is not in place, atleast right now. A few links of more help
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/reverse-pin-ATM.shtml
http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/pinalert.asp
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_reverse_pin.htm
Note: Another important thing, dont send such message to everyone before verifying them. You can at least save the nwt bandwidth ;)
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