ATM Emergency Help

[BountyHunter]

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If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse. For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be
immediately dispatched to help you. This information was recently broadcasted on FOX TV and it states that it is seldom used because people don't know it exists.

[buttercups]

Thank you BH! That is good to know!

[Vinnie]

I'm not sure if this is true or indeed universal since my pin number is a reflection.
i.e. wxxw. Thus the ATMs here cannot identify whether it is forwards or backwards.
And no it's not a number I chose but the one issued to me by the bank.

Another thing, I have noticed several times that American customers leave their signature strip on their credit card blank and support their identity with photo ID. This is not a clever thing to do if abroad since if you lose your card the thief can simply write their version of your signature on the strip and not have to worry about getting it right. If you are going to do this then write "photo ID required" on the signature strip to alert the recipient that the signature needs support. It may be different in the USA but here with the increase in PIN supported cards signatures are limited.

And one more thing why do people speak of pin # or PIN number? PIN stands for Personal Identification Number so you are effectively saying personal identification number number!

End of rant.

[Lotty]

Thanks BountyHunter!

[sexysadie]

Originally Posted by BountyHunter

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If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse. For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be
immediately dispatched to help you. This information was recently broadcasted on FOX TV and it states that it is seldom used because people don't know it exists.

WOW! More people should know this, but I guess the person robbing you would know as well then huh? Thank you BH!

[Iceman]

http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/pinalert.asp

[Lotty]

Thanks for that Robert! hugs......

[Goofy]

Thank You Bounty Hunter, I did not know that (though i doubt I'll ever be held up it's still useful knowledge). And Vinnie brought up a good point to about people not signing the back of their credit cards. I'm one of them lol but when I used it (actually it's just a debit card, the same thing I use to withdrawl money from my bankbut it does have a Visa logo though most places won't accept it as a "credit card") once the cashier looked on the back and made me sign it right there then checked my ID to see if the signatures matched. Some store personnel are more involved than others some of whom didn't bother to check. So thank you Vinnie as well for your point.

[BountyHunter]

Just another thought to share on identification. Many store clerks will ask for a driver's license or driver's license number in many states in the U. S. In some states, it is not legal unless that person asking is a law enforcement officer so be careful. I have been told by some clerks that if I refuse to provide this information, they still have to honor my transaction.

[arella]

snopes.com: Reverse PIN Panic Code