ATM Security Myth Busted

If someone force you to withdraw money from ATM, THEN......

If you are ever forced by a thief or someone to take money out of an ATM machine, enter your pin number reversed.

So if your number is 1254 mark 4521.

The ATM machine will give you your money, but will automatically recognize this as a plea for help and will alert the police unknown to the thief.

This option is in all ATM machines, but not many people know this.

This is false,

if you are ever forced to withdraw money from an ATM by a criminal, can you assist in the theif's capture by simply reversing your PIN? Probably not.

This is a case of rumor getting slightly ahead of reality. Yes, the technology to make this a reality does exist and at least one lawmaker is championing the cause to have such a system put into action. Illinois attorney Joseph Zingher got the idea when he was in law school and was using an ATM in a dangerous part of town. He patented his concept in 1998.

Zingher proposed that every ATM account come with two PINs - the standard code to confirm ownership of the account and another, dubbed the SafetyPIN or PanicPIN, that would allow cash to be withdrawn, but also notify law enforcement that a crime was taking place at the location of the ATM. The most likely source of this second PIN would be to reverse the first, however Zingher's plan allows for the card holder to specify any code as the SafetyPIN (which would get around the problem of PINs that are the same in reverse as they are forward).

Legislation calling for the institution of a SafetyPIN-type system has been introduced in Kansas and Illinois. The Kansas bill failed and the Illinois bill was so dilluted by bank industry lobbyists at passage that it made adoption optional. As of this writing, there is no other such legislation in the works and no banks or other financial institutions have implemented any such plan.

The bank industry has been very resistant to Zergher's plan. They argue that the average consumer may not have the clarity of mind in such a situation to successfully enter their alternate PIN and that efforts to do so might be seen by the criminal as resistance, thus increasing the risk of violence. They also contend that law enforcement would likely not be able to respond fast enough to catch the thief.

But the real reason behind the industry's reluctance may be much more straightforward. Implementation of the system would likely be expensive and the relatively low incidence of ATM crime just doesn't justify the cost. Many industry experts hint that they have their own solution in the works, but offer no details.

Until the better mousetrap can be built, we have to keep our defenses up. Always be alert of your surroundings when using an ATM and look for machines in well-lit, high traffic areas. If anyone approaches you, especially with a deadly weapon, and orders you to withdraw cash, law enforcement experts advise to give the crook exactly what he wants, then notify officials as soon as possible after the incident.

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Credit Cards - The Info You Should Have About Them

Nice Information about Credit Cards... Hope most of you know...

Informative Reading !!!!!!!!!!!!

Priya: I want to buy a Sony digital camera costing Rs.20,000, but I don?t have any cash right now.

Raj: Why don?t you use your ICICI Bank credit card? Never heard them say ? Hum Hain Na ??

Priya: I am quite skeptic about using these cards. I pay using the card, get a bill after 30 days and pay after another 20 days. This is a maximum of 50 days interest free loan. Why does any bank do it?

If I borrow Rs.20,000 on personal loan at 11%.
Interest to be paid for 50 days = Rs. 20,000 * 11% * (50/365) = Rs. 301.40.

Here the bank is giving me a loan without interest when I use the credit card. Something is wrong somewhere!

Raj: Well! let me tell you how it works when you use your card to pay for the camera. You present your ICICI Bank credit card ? a VISA card.
Sony World swipes your card on a machine provided by Citibank. Lets call Citibank ? the acquirer bank and the process of Sony World swiping the card on that machine ? requesting authorization .Citibank communicates with the card issuer ? ICICI Bank through VISA Network to check if the card is valid and has the required credit limit.

ICICI Bank reviews and approves / declines which is communicated back to Sony World. You sign a receipt called Sales Draft given by Citibank. This is the obligation on your part to pay the money to ICICI Bank. Data on this receipt can be captured electronically and transmitted.

At the end of day or at the end of some period Sony World chooses:
Sony World submits the receipt you signed to Citibank who pays Sony World the money. Sony World pays Citibank a fee called Merchant Discount .
Let us say this is 6% of the sale value = 6% * 20,000 = Rs. 1200 Citibank sends the receipt electronically to a Visa data center which in turn sends it to ICICI Bank. ICICI Bank transfers the money to a settlement bank which in turn transfers the funds to Citibank.
Citibank pays ICICI Bank an Interchange Fee of 4% of the sale value = 4% * 20,000 = Rs. 800
20 to 50 days later ICICI Bank gets the money from you ? and you don?t pay the interest!!

Priya: Interesting! So Sony World pays more than the interest that I should have paid for the loan that I take. I, as a card holder have the following benefits

1. Convenience of not having to carry cash.
2. Credit availability ? free of interest.

However what benefits does Sony World get for paying so much money? Isn't it more profitable for them to take cash? They can save as much as Rs.1200.

Raj: Certainly. Some retail outlets offer you discounts if you pay by cash, don?t they?

However when you don?t count the money that you are spending, you tend to buy more! Cards encourage this ? called impulse purchase .

If you did not have access to credit, you would not have bought the camera this month ? or may be not any time soon either. By accepting cards, the merchant is actually extending you credit at the risk of the card issuer. He pays money to the banks to carry that risk.

Priya: So ICICI Bank uses this money to pay back to us when they announce 5% cash back. They insist that the Sales draft that I sign at the retailer should also be from ICICI Bank. This means they are saving on the Interchange Fee and also pay me a part of the Merchant Discount that they get.

Raj: Exactly! If you have noticed, ICICI Bank gives you the cash back in the next credit card statement. They keep the ?cash back? money for a maximum of 60 days before passing on a part to you. This accrues them
interest too.

Say if ICICI Bank earns an interest of 6% per annum for the cash they carry ? they get Rs.1000 * 6% * (60/365) = Rs. 10

That is not huge, but money nevertheless. And when you consider that almost everyone in this city shops with a credit card these days, it is a big sum.

Priya: And that also explains why banks tie up with petrol pumps ? like ICICI Bank has tied up with HPCL and I could re-fuel there without having to pay the fuel surcharge of 2.5%. The card issuer and the acquiring bank is the same and that saves interchange fees.

Raj: Good! You seem to have figured out how it all works! Let me summarize:


All the numbers used to explain concepts in this article must be treated only as an example. Merchant Discounts may vary from bank to bank. Interchange Fee is regulated by VISA and MasterCard.

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