Joe Wein
Fighting spam and scams
on the Internet

Home / Blog / About us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Online fraud
jwSpamSpy
Contact

Email Spam Filter:
jwSpamSpy
Try it for free!

Google
 

Hoaxes and Urban Legends: ATM PIN code entered in reverse will call the police

A chain letter has been making the rounds, claiming that in the event of you being forced by a robber to withdraw cash from an ATM, you can alert the police by entering your PIN code in reverse. Such a scheme has been proposed, but no ATMs currently in use support it.

Please review:

Known email hoaxes:
The AOL/Microsoft money giveaway hoax
The "809" area code hoax
The burned baby hoax
Amy Bruce / Make A Wish hoax
The "Invitation" virus hoax
The "Life is beautiful" virus hoax
The Oliver North / Osama bin Ladin / Al Gore hoax
Send spam to the South African police to save children
Exxon/Mobile gas boycott
Bush IQ report / Lovenstein Institute hoax
Monkeyman935 warning hoax
Kidney Theft urban legend
Ashley Flores, 13 (missing child hoax)
How to detect a two-way mirror
$50 call-back spam
Cooking an egg with cell phones
"Osama captured" / "Osama hanged" virus
A tale of Japanese Lizards and Love
The $5 killer
Audi A8 made out of silver
ATM PIN code entered in reverse will call the police
Mars spectacularly close to Earth on August 27
"An old lady walked into a Grocery Store..."
"Allah or the Lord Jesus Christ?"
"PDA+GSM Palm Treo 650 dan Treo 680 dan Treo 750"
Bayer drug contains HIV
Forward or lose your Hotmail account
Chinese "fix" jet engine with seatbelts
AOL will donate five cents for baby's brain cancer operation
Ericsson distributing free laptops
Art Bell Filipino hate letter
Hypodermic needles on gas pump handles
"Through a rapist's eyes" / Crying Baby theory
Sheryl Crow / John Hopkins Cancer update about plastic bottles
Children buried alive in Egypt, saved by Jesus
Missing child - Regina George Muñoz
Papaya Juice - (NOT!) A Cure for Dengue
Hiroshima 64 years later (is actually Yokohama)
Lou Dobbs video on Immigration/Amnesty bill (dead since 2007)


You can not alert the police that you are being forced to withdraw cash from an ATM by a robber by entering your PIN in reverse. Here is a smaple of a hoax email:

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.

Dutch version of the hoax:

Subject: ZEER BELANGRIJK!

EEN TRANSACTIE AAN EEN GELDAUTOMAAT ... ZEER BELANGRIJK!
DEZE KLEINE INFORMATIE KAN VAN GROOT NUT ZIJN ...
Indien U ooit gedwongen wordt om geld af te halen aan een geldautomaat om daarna te overhandigen aan uw belager, weet dat ALS U UW PINCODE ACHTERSTE VOREN INBRENGT ( b.v. indien uw code 1234 is dient U 4321 als code in te tikken) de machine erkent dat U de code met opzet achterste voren hebt ingevoerd.
U krijgt inderdaad het geld maar tegelijkertijd wordt de politie verwittigd dat U bedreigd/bestolen wordt. De politie kan U in dit geval dus ter hulp komen. Deze nuttige informatie werd via de TV vrijgegeven en het blijkt dat slechts weinig mensen hiervan op de hoogte zijn.
DAAROM IS HET RAADZAAM OM DIT BERICHT DOOR TE STUREN !!!

jwSpamSpy
Are you sick of spam too? Do you want it stopped now?
Try jwSpamSpy, the spamfilter we use to track the spammers!
Free 30-day trial version available now!