 They
can account a deposit amount incorrectly, dispense too little or too
much cash, fail to give a receipt and keep a customer's banking card.
The
most spectacular errors occur when ATM's dispense cash to anyone who
walks by, including those without money in their accounts or even
without accounts.
A couple of times a year, news reports tell of
crowds gathering around ATM's that mistakenly begin spewing bills. In
2010, Bank of Ireland ATM's dispensed more cash to customers than they
actually had in their accounts, according to The New York Times. One
taxi driver with nothing in the bank walked away with 700 euros.
Mistakes Usually From Human Error
How
often does it happen? Diebold Inc., a leading maker of ATMs, based in
North Canton, Ohio, does not keep records of how many mistakes its
machines make, the company says. A representative there says only that
mistakes are rare.
However, mistakes do happen, says James
Trocme, senior director of market research and knowledge management at
Diebold. While they don't know how often they happen, mistakes by the
machines can usually be traced to some form of human error. Poor
maintenance practices especially can lead to ATM foul-ups, Trocme says.
Although
no one in the industry seems to know how often mistakes occur, they
generally agree about what to do to avoid being victimized by a rogue
ATM.
1. Always get a printed receipt. The
receipt contains important information such as the transaction date and
time and the machine identifier, says Nessa Feddis, senior counsel for
American Bankers Association based in Washington, D.C. Among other
things, this will allow the ATM owner to check the photographic record
that is often made of transactions.
2. Count your cash.
John Prendergast, vice president of supervision for Conference of State
Bank Supervisors, an advocacy group composed of state banking
regulators based in Washington, D.C., acknowledges that safety concerns
may sometimes preclude openly counting a fat stack of $20 bills.
"You
need to be cognizant of your surroundings, particularly if there is
anyone behind you waiting for the ATM," Prendergast says. "But I would
absolutely count the money." It's possible that a video record of the
transaction could be used to confirm how many bills you count out, he
says.
Act Fast to Improve Your Chances
3. Notify the bank or ATM owner.
You can find a phone number on the ATM, telling you whom to call in
case the machine isn't located outside of a branch bank, Prendergast
says.
4. Act quickly. If you let the ATM owner know immediately, it will make it more likely that the company can trace the error, Feddis says.
An
ATM error can leave you baffled, infuriated and not knowing where to
turn. But if you take the right steps, the mistake is likely to get
corrected. "The outcomes in my experience have been the same,"
Prendergast says. "That's that the consumer is always dealt with very
well and is not left in a bad position." |
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