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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!seismo!mcvax!enea!kuling!peterf
From: peterf@kuling.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Subject: Re: ATM secret codes
Message-ID: <400@kuling.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Jun-87 16:35:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: kuling.400
Posted: Thu Jun 18 16:35:20 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jun-87 09:47:25 EDT
References: <3256@well.UUCP> <1290003@hpcvlo.HP.COM>
Reply-To: peterf@kuling.UUCP (Peter Fagerberg)
Distribution: world
Organization: Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University, Sweden
Lines: 47
Summary: How to trick your local ATM-company.


< When my friend got to the ATM, it said (on the display) "Would you like 
< another transaction?"  Of course, my friend said yes, and withdrew $100.00
< from the account, quit, pocketed the card and then used his own card for his
< own transaction.  He then went into the branch, turned in the card, with a
< check for $100.00 (he may be a prankster, but he is not totally w/o morals)
< and has a great story.
----------
Here's another story in the same genre:

A couple of years ago a book was published here in Sweden by an
unknown author who explained a lot of ways on how to fool 'the
computer society'.  Rumor has it that he'd actually gone through with
some of the things he wrote about but no proof was every produced,
mostly due to the fact that large corporations (read BANKS) are not
very keen on prosecution and admitting that they've been fooled.

Anyway, the scheme described was this: a couple of guys rented a
store downtown Stockholm and instead of a shopwindow they put up a
normal wall. Then they made a machine which looked just like a regular
ATM (withdrawal-only) and installed in their newly built wall. This
machine had a small CRT and a keypad just like regular ATMs and it was
also able to read the magnetic strip of the plastic card.

When a customer inserted his card the machine would read the magnetic
strip and save that on a regular cassette tape. It would then ask for
the sum, wait a little while and ask for the secret 4-digit code which
was also recorded on the tape. The machine would then promptly display
something like 'Technical Error' and return the card.

Since everything was automatic all the guys had to do was to return at
night, get the tape, reprogram one of their own cards (easily done
with the right equipment), read the secret code and start to withdraw
money from any *regular* machine.

Since the banks send out account information on a given date it was
easy to choose a time when they knew that people weren't very likely
to find out that their deposits had reached a new low. Instead the
scam was discovered through people calling the bank and complaining
about a machine that had been broken for quite some time without
anyone repairing it.....

-- 
==============================================================================
Peter Fagerberg             UUCP: {seismo,enea,mcvax,decwrl,...}!kuling!peterf
Applied Computer Science    ARPA: kuling!peterf@seismo.css.gov
Uppsala University          Analog: +46 18-128286 or 8-102927