Bank ATM gives extra cash
August 13, 2002 10:55 AM   Subscribe

Bank ATM gives extra cash Man, why can't my bank do this?
posted by agregoli (24 comments total)
 
The snack machine at work gives away free snacks sometimes. It flashes WINNER and you get a free oatmeal cake.
posted by corpse at 11:10 AM on August 13, 2002


And to think I thought this was the only way to get free money!
posted by ericableu at 11:24 AM on August 13, 2002


the bank put some $50 bills in the ATM's $20 stack and some $20 bills in the $10 stack.
ah. sort of the way corporations account for expenses!
posted by quonsar at 11:24 AM on August 13, 2002


thats a pretty good scheme to get people to come to the atm, but the premise reminds me vaguely of the springfield police's boat giveaway...
do they have a method of keeping people from going every few minutes and withdrawing 20 bucks from their account? they can just come back tomorrow and deposit a nice fat envelope of cash back in, and then keep withdrawing...
posted by sixtwenty3dc at 11:24 AM on August 13, 2002


Great, just what we need. More morons driving through there while it's dug up. What with 90th & Dodge under reconstruction and the I-680 & Dodge ramp work about a mile further down the road it sure is fun making your way into west Omaha these days.
posted by zedbends at 11:28 AM on August 13, 2002


I remember awhile back in Boston, when this happened by accident. There was some ATM that used to give out 10s, but they put 20s in the tray before they updated the software. I never found out exactly where it was, only heard the stories about it.
posted by jozxyqk at 11:47 AM on August 13, 2002


the bank put some $50 bills in the ATM's $20 stack and some $20 bills in the $10 stack.
ah. sort of the way corporations account for expenses!
- quonsar


Which leads me to wonder how exactly American National Bank would account for it? If it was a mistake, you could stick it into some write-off account (sorry, not an accountant, so I could be using the wrong terms). Would deliberately giving money away like be termed charity?
posted by darsh at 12:17 PM on August 13, 2002


do they have a method of keeping people from going every few minutes and withdrawing 20 bucks from their account?

my thoughts exactly. and why stop at $20? in my neighborhood that thing would be empty in ten minutes flat - and not everyone would be using an ATM card.
posted by gottabefunky at 12:18 PM on August 13, 2002


Around Christmas, I went to the ATM. It was cold and I think some of the mechanisms inside were jamming a bit. The door that the money comes out of stuck, but eventually my $40 came through the slot and the door got stuck trying to close again. Then the computer beeps. "Sorry, there was an error in this transaction. Would you like to try again?"

I looked at my $40, looked back at the screen. Merry Christmas indeed.
posted by katieinshoes at 12:32 PM on August 13, 2002


The bank auditor will eventually try to figure out where that missing $40 went, katieinshoes.... If you were the only one that had an 'error' in transaction, and no one complained of being shorted, there is every possibility they will assume that you got the money, and charge your account.

Then, it is up to *YOU* to show that you DIDN'T get it. Banking law is not on your side. Trust me on this. *sigh*
posted by dwivian at 12:55 PM on August 13, 2002


It's happened to me. In the space of about ten minutes there was a huge queue for the ATM and it was emptied within the hour.
posted by jonathanbell at 1:01 PM on August 13, 2002


There's a Wilmington Trust ATM where I live that has the money dispensing equivalent of paper jams. My fiance has honestly returned a few extra $20's so far in the past few months. They keep saying that they "fixed" it, maybe it's just her...
posted by samsara at 1:01 PM on August 13, 2002


I wonder what that ATM's service charge is that they can afford to do that...
posted by catfood at 1:15 PM on August 13, 2002


I hit up an atm a while ago that usually hands out 10's; I got a handful of 20's instead, double the amount that I had requested and that which was on my receipt. Just for the hell of it, I turned around and withdrew another $200; same thing, $400 in 20's. That evening the amount on my receipts showed up on my transaction history, but the next day it had been credited and the real amount was subtracted. It's just not worth it to get excited over banking errors in your favor; they eventually will track it down, and come looking for their money. I wish my checkbook was that well managed...
posted by bizwank at 1:53 PM on August 13, 2002


The snack machine at work gives away free snacks sometimes. It flashes WINNER and you get a free oatmeal cake.

Man, the machine at work did this to me and scared the bejezus out of me. I then proceeded to eat my two apple pies.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 2:35 PM on August 13, 2002


Yeah, due to the fact that banks generally find errors, this "promotion" would just piss me off, because now, I have to waste time either calling or going in to a branch office to report the error...or spend months going over my accounts, either because I recorded the amount received and couldn't get it to balance, or because I was always waiting for them to reconcile.

Grrr! Bad bank! No biscuit.
posted by dejah420 at 2:53 PM on August 13, 2002


This pales in relation to the ATM scamming by NYC municipal employees after the computer system was wacked out by 9/11. Of course, the system eventually tracked everyone down, and now some of them are in real trouble.
posted by dhartung at 3:35 PM on August 13, 2002


Great--I just move away from Nebraska (2 weeks ago), and all of a sudden banks start giving away money. So not fair!
posted by eilatan at 4:56 PM on August 13, 2002


The Royal Bank of Canada also did this; spitting out the occasional $20 when you asked for $5. Alas, they recently got rid of the small bills and now everything's got to be in multiples of $20.
posted by Monk at 5:00 PM on August 13, 2002


Speaking of free snacks: I used to have a "magic quarter" which worked wonders on a vending machine at the local community college. Stick in the quarter, watch it fall straight through to the "coin return" area, see the LCD credit you with another $0.25 worth of purchasing power. Repeat as needed. Free Lean Pockets for the masses! "WINNER", indeed.
posted by youhas at 6:40 PM on August 13, 2002


I thought for sure someone would mention the couple that accidentally received $72,000 from the ATM rather than the $2,200 they were entitled to. A wild shopping spree ensued. Of course they had to pay it back.

A different kind of 9/11 story: about 4000 people used ATMs to steal $15 million from a credit union whose computer security system was damaged in the Sept. 11 attack. And, yes, they have to pay it back.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:45 PM on August 13, 2002


Rats! Forgot to check my links. $15 million.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:49 PM on August 13, 2002


This happened to me once. I loved it and thouroughly enjoyed the banks error.

For about a week. Then the nice men with shiny badges and shiny shoes came by for breakfast. They informed me that in NY it is larceny to keep something that you know doesn't belong to you. They were kind enough to explain this in great detail and strongly advised that I contact my bank to 'rectify' the error, they even waited while I did so.

They keep records of these things, ya know?
posted by cedar at 8:18 PM on August 13, 2002


This also reminds me of the story of that guy who deposited the fake "This might be you" check for $90,000 or something, as a joke, and posted his story on the web after the bank never caught his error and he tried to settle the problem. Don't remember where the link was..
posted by jozxyqk at 7:43 AM on August 14, 2002


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