IF YOU MISSED the article on Tuesday’s front page about the claim that entering a reversed personal identification number on an automated teller machine will automatically alert police that you are being forced to withdraw money, go back and read it.
That tale, being spread by e-mail, is a prime example of an urban legend.
In fact, the legend has acquired some status in the urban-legend community. This week, www.snopes.com, which catalogs and debunks popular myths, hoaxes and plain misinformation, puts the ATM story at the top of its “25 Hottest Urban Legends” list. A lot of people must receiving those e-mails.
The Snopes site says the reverse-PIN idea was first proposed in 1994 by a Chicago businessman, but it has never been put into use, for two reasons: The technology to alert police has yet to be developed and people who are being threatened with violence are not likely to be able to reverse the digits in their PINs on the fly.
The tale can be dangerous. If anyone who believes it is forced to withdraw money from an ATM and reverses the number, all the machine will do is spit the card back and refuse to give up the money. That is likely to make a robber angry.
What makes the ATM legend so attractive? On its surface, it makes sense. It is also reassuring to people who worry about being robbed when they use an ATM. There is also the element of making people who receive the e-mail believe that they are in on useful inside information.
The ATM story is only one of many lies, hoaxes and scams making their way around the country right now. There are computer viruses masking themselves as photos of Osama bin Laden being hanged, pleas for information about poor abducted Ashley Flores (no one by that name has been abducted) and dire warnings about threatening legislation that does not exist or was voted down years ago.
As most people are aware, e-mails are the easiest and quickest way to spread misinformation. Electronically, a lie can indeed run around the world before truth can get its boots on.
These lies are not spread by liars, but by gullible people who are willing to pass along information that they do not know to be true.
The next time you receive something like the ATM tale, take a couple of minutes to check it out at the Snopes Web site or other urban-legend sites on the Internet before deciding whether to help it on its way around the world.
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Posted by Joseph_Zingher (anonymous) on January 19, 2007 at 8:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The ReversePIN system is not in place anywhere in the world because the banking industry sees no profit in fixing the problem which they created. The pattern is well defined. 1) A victim is taken hostage in a carjacking or a home-invasion. 2) The victim is then transported to an ATM where the first withdrawal occurs. 3) The criminal then learns that there is more money in the account. 4) In order to continue making withdrawals using the victim's card, the criminal takes the victim to a remote location and executes him or her and hides the body. This is part of the ATM business model. The industry prefers the status quo to remain in place because the profits from the ATM industry are so insanely high. Tamper with the business model and you may remind people of the danger inherent in the system and drive people away from ATMs entirely. After all, if you're the head of marketing for the bank, how many of these murders make you jump up and down shouting "Hooray! Hooray! only "X" murders this year at our ATMs!" Further, because the criminal doesn't begin the crime with a polite inquiry, "Pardon me, do you have an ATM card on you by any chance?" even people who refuse to accept the risk of carrying an ATM card end up as victims.
Posted by Joseph_Zingher (anonymous) on January 19, 2007 at 9:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
p.s. Contrary to the impression given by this article and last week's there is NO EFFORT underway to install the system. There has never been any effort to actually analyze whether it is even a good idea at all. See the St. Louis Post Dispatch, March 27th, 2005, "Inventor urgres idea to thwart ATM holdups" and the Chicago Tribune, May 13th 2003, Eric Zorn column.
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