ATM Pin Reversal Tip is a Hoax

Someone posted a pic on my Facebook Timeline on Dec 6th. I just saw it today. The information caused me to do a little digging.

The info above seems to good to be true because it is. According to Snopes.com, a website dedicated to proving or disproving internet rumors and urban legends, this is FALSE.

snopes.com:

"This seemingly helpful heads-up began circulating on the Internet in September 2006. However, "seemingly" is only a chimera, in that entering one's Personal Identification Number (PIN) in reverse at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) does not summon the police.

The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 compelled the Federal Trade Commission to provide an analysis of any technology, either then currently available or under development, which would allow a distressed ATM user to send an electronic alert to a law enforcement agency. The following statements were made in the FTC's April 2010 reportin response to that requirement:

FTC staff learned that emergency-PIN technologies have never been deployed at any ATMs.

The respondent banks reported that none of their ATMs currently have installed, or have ever had installed, an emergency-PIN system of any sort. The ATM manufacturer Diebold confirms that, to its knowledge, no ATMs have or have had an emergency-PIN system.

Ergo, there aren't and haven't ever been "reverse PIN" technologies despite Internet-circulated claims dating to September 2006 that anyone being robbed at an ATM simply had to enter his or her PIN in reverse to summon help. "

Filed Under: ATM, Hoax

Categories: Community