Did you read the odd news on Reuters where an ATM in Hull, Northern England, dispensed double the withdrawal amount for a few hours until it ran out of cash?
News reports said that people who discovered this malfunction were calling everyone they know to get down to that ATM to make withdrawals. I find it really odd that the daily limit is GBP300. Hhhmmm in contrast, my HSBC account here allows me to withdraw five-figures via the ATM.
It is said that the people who made withdrawals could face charges so that the machine operator could recoup losses. It’s not difficult to trace who made withdrawals from the machine because every transaction is recorded.
Well, I think that the operator should just let these people go with the cash, in good faith. It’s not their fault that the money came out double what they requested for and it is only human nature to get the most advantage over the glitch, right?
Reading this case, I am reminded of the time when an ecommerce store wrongly listed the price of an electronic item and everyone who found out about it was telling everyone else they know to make a purchase of that item. The company did not see through those orders, if memory serves me right.
I came across this news story on the LA Daily News about a gold bar scam incident that just happened in Lancaster, New York.
The modus operandi is always the same. One person will approach the target and in mid-conversation, a person will join them and proposes something. The person will act interested and make it so that he will give the target a chance instead. Target meanwhile does not realise that they first and second person are accomplices and in the end falls into their trap.
In this case in Lancaster, New York, this victim lost her life savings of US$9000 buying a “gold bar” which is actually a bra painted gold. There’s a difference, you know? She was made to believe that the gold bar could be sold for US$15000 and this victim thought that she could do business with her US$9000 capital and profit US$6000 from the sale of her “gold bar”.
This kind of scams have been happening every where even here in Malaysia but the object of desire may not necessarily be gold bars. For web savvy people, we know that there are so many kinds of stories sent to us that we don’t believe in scams like these but not everyone is as worldly.
Did you know that the downfall of men is caused be greed? If this victim had not been greedy, then she would not have been scammed. The difference between this case and the 101 cases over here is that the New York police have already obtained video footage from the close circuit TV of Bank of America where she went to withdraw her money to “buy” the phony gold bar.
