🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul21.131915.7708@vax.oxford.ac.uk> roes@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
>On July 9 1992 I wrote:
>
>> I recently saw an article in a Dutch newspaper (Vrij
>> Nederland,13/06/92), stating that PIN codes on cash machine
>> cards are not as safe as most people think or the banks would
>> like us to believe. The article described a number of cases
>> were money was taken from cash machines with stolen cards. In
>> each case the owners of the cards were insisting that the PIN
>> code was never written down and nobody else new it. In one
>> case the owner did not even new the code herself. In spite of
>> this, it turned out that the PIN code was typed correctly the
>> first time and sometimes shortly after the card was stolen
>> (after about 20 minutes).
>
>> I do not know how reliable this information is, but is there
>> anybody who can tell me if *in principle* it is possible to
>> retrieve the four digit PIN code from a stolen cash machine
>> card?
>

You didnt't mention an even easier way:

Watch someone keying in their pin from behind them in the queue. Most
people type in numbers on keyboards very slowly, so this is easy
enough. Now wait and hope that they don't bother picking up their
receipt. You now have their account number (helpfully printed on
the receipt) and their PIN. Now you need a little machine to encode
the magnetic strips on plastic cards, plus a few blank cards. These
are widely available for a few hundred quid. Encode the appropriate
number and you can now withdraw money from their account. 

Moral: Don't let anyone see you type in your PIN, and always keep
your receipts.



Matt