We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again — there’s no such thing as free money. And if you do find yourself in the possession of millions of dollars in cash because your bank messed up, don’t take that dough and gamble it all away. It’s not going to end well. [More]
atm
Customer Discovers Card Skimmer On Bank ATM
By 11.18.11
When most of us think about illegal card skimmers on ATMs, we think of free-standing cash machines at convenience stores or on the street. But a sharp-eyed bank customer in Massachusetts spotted a skimmer at the last place you’d expect one: the bank. [More]
Just Because You're Illiterate Doesn't Mean You Shouldn't Be Able To Use The ATM
By 7.11.11
If you’ve ever found yourself trying to get money from an ATM that doesn’t want to display its menus in English, you know it can be aggravating. But imagine what it must be like for someone with no understanding of any written language. Now there are new ATMs being created for use in developing regions with lower literacy rates. [More]
ATM Repairman Accused Of Swapping Out Cash With Funny Money
By 5.27.11
An ATM repairman who is suspected of trafficking in counterfeit money stands accused of using ATMs as, well, ATMs for his criminal purposes. Authorities say the man swapped out $200,000 of genuine cash in exchange for his faux green. [More]
Skimmer Uses Bank Door Swipe, Crooks Don't Even Touch ATM
By 1.31.11
In a twist to the usual ATM skimmer scam, there’s a new report from Krebs on Security about crooks who put the skimmer inside the bank door-lock. When you swipe your card to get inside, they grab your digits. A camera hidden behind a mirror above the ATM and pointed down at the keypad records your PIN code when you punch it in. [More]
Reader Nearly Gets Jacked By Fake ATM
By 6.29.10
Reader Paul was trying to enjoy fried pop tarts at an outdoor city festival in his hometown when his debit card was nearly stolen by a fake ATM. Someone had modified an arcade cabinet and placed it outside a bank where it had captured the overflow traffic spilling out of the bank lobby. [More]
Fake ATMs Drain Your Account Dry
By 6.24.10
We’ve talked about spotting skimmers placed on ATMs before, but what if the whole ATM is a skimmer? [More]
Keep PayPal From Using The Default ATM Debit Setting
By 5.25.10
PayPal exists to make money, not to help you. That’s why the unregulated money broker likes to ensure that when you pay with a linked account, you pay via the ATM debit card setting, because it’s cheaper for PayPal. Of course, that “savings” is sometimes deducted from you in the form of a transaction fee by your bank, but PayPal doesn’t care. If you want to change that payment method the next time you use PayPal, be prepared to jump through a lot of hoops. [More]
The Most Reasonable Letter We've Ever Received From A Guy Whose Bank Misplaced $14,000
By 4.4.10
Meet Matt. He’s is the writer of the most reasonable, calm, thoughtful letter we’ve ever gotten from someone whose bank misplaced a check for $14,000. That bank is Bank of America, and they’ve lost a customer. Was it because their ATM ate the check? Not really. It was because they couldn’t even bother to act concerned about it. Matt is ready for a bank that thinks $14,000 is important. [More]
Photo: This ATM Wants To Eat Your Hand
By 3.22.10
We’ve heard all manner of complaints about ATMs over the years. From ATM skimming to usurious fees to ponzi schemes, we thought we’d seen it all. Until Consumerist reader Jen sent in this photo of an ATM… that has a thirst for your blood. [More]
Chase Cannot Find A Human Being To Read A Check
By 12.14.09
Chase has these fancy new ATMs that take checks without envelopes. It scans the check and blah, blah, robots, science, a better tomorrow. The interesting thing about them is that reader Angela says that when the ATM makes an error, Chase mails the check back to you so that you, the customer, can take it to a branch bank and show it to a human being. Apparently, even though Chase already has the check in its possession — it cannot find a human being to read a check. [More]
Meet The Virtual ATM Skimmers
By 6.22.09
Just when you thought that you and your ATM card data were safe from criminal eyes, Scientific American brings a different sort of threat. This time, the skimmers are inside the machine. Malware within the ATM itself harvests enough data to do some very bad things.
New York ATM Skimmer Crooks Stole $1.8 Million
By 5.12.09
Four Romanian nationals in Florida have been charged in a series of ATM skimmer frauds that targeted banks in New York City, Cicero (near Syracuse), NY, and Rochester, NY. They are charged with, among other things, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit credit card fraud. According to the Syracuse office of the Secret Service, they stole $1.8 million overall.
Blog Gets Some Stupid Capcom Credit Card Fees Removed
By 3.20.09
It turns out that Chun-Li, of Street Fighter fame, does not want to charge you so many onerous fees on your Capcom credit card that attack over and over on your neck like that stupid bitch, Blanka. Just some of them.
Visa And Capcom Announce Street Fighter Hyper Fee Edition Card
By 3.5.09
Video game maker Capcom has partnered with Visa to offer a pre-paid debit card with so many fees that it will shrink your wallet from an E. Honda to a Dhalsim. The hurricane kick of fees, inside.
49 Banks That Refund All ATM Fees
By 12.22.08
Why pay people for your own money? Via FatWallet, here’s a big daddy list of all the banks that refund your ATM fees, regardless of who owns the ATM.
Found Wall Street ATM Receipt Shows $97,084.23 Balance
By 9.24.08
With all the concern about unemployed Wall Street sloggers and whether they’ll be able to keep up their leveraged lifestyle, or even get an apartment, this ATM receipt a reader’s coworker found sitting in a Wall Street ATM with a balance of $97,084.23 shows there’s at least one person who is going to be okay. Plus, this guy knows what he’s doing; note how the balance is just under the $100,000 limit for full FDIC coverage.
