weird cashpoint/ATM event: awesome (also annoying)

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ok i just put my card into an ATM to get money out

i. as the card went in the screen changed from usual user-friendly promo nonsense (it wz the HALIFAX so it featured HOWARD grrr) to stuff i'd never seen before, some kind of virus screening banner
ii. then it just went black (but still lit up) -- after a bit i pressed cancel
iii. the WHOLE UNIT switched off w/o giving me back my card
iv. on the screen was PRIMARY CODE!! i wz starin reight into the heart of the entire world bankin system except w/o q keyboard (i may have pressed cancel a few more times)
v. i watched the ATM programme boot up from nothing ON-SCREEN, inc.microsoft logo, and the various loading idents of anti virus and security systems, grey bars, system loading, system not loaded, system copied -- does this happen often? i don't believe so
vi. then it just showed "this ATM is currently not in service" for a few mins
vii. then it was back online BUT IT STILL HAD MY CARD INSIDE!!
viii. i stood by it forlornly for a bit, telling people what had happened -- then i came home and cancelled it

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

when i called up the lost or stolen card line, it took ages for anyone to answer and the robot woman called it a "busy time" (6.oo on a sat?) so maybe halifax customers everywhere just underwent the same ordeal and were all cancellin their cards also

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

I like Howard.

― chap who would dare to be completely sober on the internet (chap), Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

HE HAS MY CARD!! MY CANCELLED CARD!!

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

look what he is going to pay for with MY CARD!!

http://www.visit4info.com/sitecontent/LG/fullZZZZZZTVICL0606113300PIC.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

Hey, if I had your card I'd buy a giant mutant chicken on a stick as well.

― chap who would dare to be completely sober on the internet (chap), Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

i prefer nathan west (he used write reviews for the wire)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

Heh, is it just me, or did this thread title just change from "weird ATM event" to "weird cashpoint/ATM event"? Was that to prevent possible confusion with this? :)

(sort of NSFW)

― JimD (JimD), Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

jeez, that's not what i needed just before dinner!

― toby (tsg20), Saturday, 11 February 2006 19:23 (nineteen years ago)

something like this happened to me the other day! but i hung around for like five minutes and it finally spat my card out.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 11 February 2006 20:28 (nineteen years ago)

something like this happened to me (machine rebooted w/ windows start-up etc) at the halifax/BoS on the corner of sauchiehall and rose, haha, blythswood, actually, anyway. yeah, forget whether my card was in and came out of I hadn't put it in but the machine was all weird!!!

― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 11 February 2006 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

this hapened to me in buenos aires!!

somehow i was able to get my card out though

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 11 February 2006 22:37 (nineteen years ago)

This happened to me too, no card back for me! Royal Bank of Scotland in Paisley, en route to a Glasgow dinner-FAP (hence quick production of credit card and taking of everyone else's money to subsidise rest of evening).

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 11 February 2006 22:39 (nineteen years ago)

This hasn't happned to me!

Did you try asking the machine "please may I have my card back?". It might have worked, but probably not.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 12 February 2006 09:44 (nineteen years ago)

A lot of scammers these days are messing with ATMs to skim your card info - be careful! They attach a fake swipe thing and later retreive the data

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Sunday, 12 February 2006 09:57 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah um, did this all happen to ppl with the same bank on the same day? If not, the fact its happening a lot sounds pretty scammer-dodgy. I've become hyper paranoid about looking at cashpoints for strange looking extra bits of front facing and such, and covering the pin-typing with my hand.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 12 February 2006 09:59 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, it sounds like a system failure. According, to the Blue Man Group, the average person relies on 33 computers per day.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 12 February 2006 10:08 (nineteen years ago)

The blue man group never got me in the mood for love.

I want to form a red man group and atttack 'em!

KRAFTWERK vs BLue Men!

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Sunday, 12 February 2006 10:34 (nineteen years ago)

I've become hyper paranoid about looking at cashpoints for strange looking extra bits of front facing and such, and covering the pin-typing with my hand.

Last time I was in London I was walking about looking for a cashpoint when I saw a big crowd around the sort of place where one might be (the side of a bank). When I got closer two policemen were holding a bloke in his early 20s to the floor, and another was pinning a guy against the wall. Neither really seemed to be resisting. After asking what happened, we found out they'd installed a little camera in an extra panel above the cashpoint and had been caught coming back to retrieve it. I asked if the cashpoint was still okay to use and they said "sure, as long as you cover your fingers with your hand". If I hadn't been in such a hurry I'd definitely have gone looking for a different machine.

Round my way crooks aren't nearly as clever.

― melton mowbray (adr), Sunday, 12 February 2006 10:35 (nineteen years ago)

there was no scan thing stuck on the outside of the insert-slot and i reported the incident and cancelled the card immediately

i think it was a system failure, it was clearly rebooting: what was odd was being able to watch it happen (presumably they turn the outward screen off usually while this happens) --- i had never thought of the ATM screen as a "computer" before

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 12 February 2006 10:37 (nineteen years ago)

Mine was a while ago, and a different bank. I called up to cancel my card straight away - while standing in front of the ATM paraying my card and my money would come out - fearing I'd been scammed (the bloke in front of me had been taking a *very long* time and had a *very furtive* manner -> paranoid ailsa) but the nice lady at the bank call centre just said it must have been a fault with the machine and she stopped my card and she issued me a new one and I spent the rest of the weekend really cross because I couldn't get to a bank to get money (though I did have the total cost of Glasgow-ILX-that-isn't-me-or-Neil's dinner in cash due to circumstances dictating us not having any cash to spend.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 12 February 2006 10:42 (nineteen years ago)

oddly enough i *knew* the woman in front of me in the queue (she seemed to get on ok, and when she finished turned at me and flashed a very unfurtive smile and said "finished!") -- she works at the local health centre

i don't think this had any bearing on what happened though -- and if it does i know where to find her!!

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 12 February 2006 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

that pic of howard shd be titled "so not going to happen 3"

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 12 February 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

this wasn't at old street station was it? the very same thing happened to me there on monday- a situation aggravated by the world's most sarcastic london transport employee grrrr

― Barnaby (Barnaby), Sunday, 12 February 2006 15:13 (nineteen years ago)

no it wz in mare street

THE MACHINE STOPS

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 12 February 2006 15:59 (nineteen years ago)

the halifax atm on mare street is fucking weird - i once tried to get some money out at stupid o'clock in the morning and the screen went black on me for about five minutes, i was quietly panicking about my card still inside when it spat it out with no warning. i've never tried to use it since.

― The Lex (The Lex), Sunday, 12 February 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

i had never thought of the ATM screen as a "computer" before

totally!! it's always weird when you realize these things you've just assumed were hyper-efficient dedicated machines are really just windows computers

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 12 February 2006 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

I used to work in an intellectual property firm a couple years ago and we used to have alot of patents lying around. One day I saw this foot high stack of paper for an 'automatic transaction machine' and it took me about 5 minutes to realize just wtf it was talking about. Not a rocket scientist, I.

― Stuh-du-du-du-du-du-du-denka (jingleberries), Sunday, 12 February 2006 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

thought it was automatic or automated teller machine

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 12 February 2006 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

totally!! it's always weird when you realize these things you've just assumed were hyper-efficient dedicated machines are really just windows computers

Yes! The tills in the Co-op all crashed one day, and were booting up Windows on their screens when I went in. I've seen a crashed BT phone before as well. See here for far too many more.

How long before an ATM gets a virus then?

― stet (stet), Sunday, 12 February 2006 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

Automatic Teller Machine it is.

I actually saw someone deposit money via the ATM the other week. I knew you could do this, but it's the first time I've ever seen someone put their cash in an envelope and put it in the machine. How does that work? I mean, how does the bank know the amount paid in? It's open to fraud?

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 12 February 2006 17:43 (nineteen years ago)

you tell them how much, w/ the keypad, when you post the envelope and then, I bet, someone will open the envelope and have a look, later

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 12 February 2006 17:56 (nineteen years ago)

I just imagine some poor bank employee who has to sit inside the machine, waiting for the occassional envelope of money to be posted through.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 12 February 2006 18:24 (nineteen years ago)

we shd feed him KRAFT CHEESE SLICES!

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 12 February 2006 18:27 (nineteen years ago)

and after eights for pudding

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 12 February 2006 18:27 (nineteen years ago)

JEL - they use hobbits in the ATM and they are quite content as long as they have their longbottom marijuana

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Sunday, 12 February 2006 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

i always deposite my money via atm... always!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 12 February 2006 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

alors

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 12 February 2006 19:23 (nineteen years ago)

(no shenanigans in my account so far)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 13 February 2006 10:48 (nineteen years ago)

I just imagine some poor bank employee who has to sit inside the machine, waiting for the occassional envelope of money to be posted through.

you've been watching too many Hard Fi videos J

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Monday, 13 February 2006 12:09 (nineteen years ago)

Number of Hard Fi videos which counts as "too many" = 1

― James Ward (jamesmichaelward), Monday, 13 February 2006 12:10 (nineteen years ago)

indeed

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Monday, 13 February 2006 12:13 (nineteen years ago)

"It's a bit like loading the photocopier — except the paper's more expensive!"

Shudder

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Monday, 13 February 2006 12:13 (nineteen years ago)

Damn, I don't remember ever seeing a hard-fi video! They have invaded my brain :( Mr Jones has a good theory, I have occassionally seen smoke rising from a cash point.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 13 February 2006 18:10 (nineteen years ago)

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