Free money… kind of
Dan Saunders was a 29-year-old Australian bartender, but he really is little brighter than the average Kangaroo. After a night out partying with friends, Saunders attempted to make transfers between his savings account and credit card at an ATM. But Saunders quickly realized that the machine was mistakenly letting him transfer more money than he actually had in his account. Dan may have been drinking, but he was sharp enough to notice the difference. In the early hours of the morning, the ATM machines went offline, disconnecting from the bank. Saunders saw there was a delay between the withdrawal and bank’s system documenting the transaction — so long as he transferred money between accounts during the ATM’s offline hours, he could withdraw large sums of cash without the accounts appearing overdrawn. Dan was smarter than a kangaroo, but he was hopping ahead of himself, the temptation was winning. “So it said on the screen ‘transaction cancelled,’ but it worked,” he said. “And the money was there, so I got the $200 out and thought nothing of it. He couldn’t believe it when the money kept coming out but did not appear on his credit card statements. He couldn’t resist. “I’m transferring money from my credit card to my savings account and it’s just spitting the card back out and saying ‘transaction cancelled’,” he said. “But (I) go in and check the balance … and the money’s there.”
Dan stopped making the transfers and the bank realized what happened. Saunders told VICE it was more than 10 months after apologizing to the bank before any legal action was taken. He was taken to court after speaking to newspapers and TV outlets about the incidents. “I thought I was going to get totally reamed, but the court was weird because no one actually understood what I did—not the judge, not the prosecutor—so it was very odd,” Saunders said. Dan lived the life of a high roller, spending more than $1.5 million in just over four months. He spent one year in prison and 18-months on community service then Dan returned to work in the hospitality industry. “I was just interested in having a good time. It’s a pretty addictive thing to make money appear from nowhere and be able to spend it,” he said. “It was quite baffling when someone didn’t come.” He admitted he misses it “everyday” but said he has not gone back to an ATM to try again. He said he has no regrets. “The only thing I thought of was a good time because I thought every day it was going to end anyway. I didn’t realize it was going to get up to the millions of dollars. “I thought it was going to end after one week, not four and a half months.”
Please insert your card
I just checked my account balance at the ATM.
It printed me a coupon for ramen noodles.
I am in small ATM closet having two Air Conditioners and 4 fluorescent lights, and 2 security cameras working 24 hours day and night. Then the machine is asking me not to print a receipt to save the environment??
Did you know Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz could have gone back home —- she did have a debit card with her. But there were no banks in Oz, that’s why she kept wandering, looking around, crying out, “ATM! ATM!”
Only a bank ATM will charge you $3 to get your money back,
Then tell you to cover your pin so you don’t get robbed.
May 15th Birthdays
1968 – Madhuri Dixon, 1981 – Jamie-Lynn Sigler, 1972 – Sarah Hadland
1955 – Lee Horsley, 1937 – Trini Lopez, 1947 – George Lucas, 1969 – Emmitt Smith