Does Entering the ATM PIN in Reverse really Calls the Police?

The information below in the quotes claims that if in case you are forced by an armed robber or thief to withdraw money from ATM then you can secretly inform the police by entering your ATM PIN in reverse order. This information have been circulating over Internet, via email and I, recently, have received a SMS version conveying the same message. The message also claims that every ATM has this facility but its users are not known to it. The sender of this sms to me is a reliable person who is very conscious and observant so I couldn’t overlook this information but I was just left wondering that if this security feature is for the ATM users’ security then why the ATM users are not aware of it.

“ATM USE: In the spite of armed robbery, here is something you may really need. WHEN A THIEF FORCES YOU TO TAKE MONEY FROM THE ATM, DO NOT ARGUE OR RESIST, YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW WHAT HE OR SHE MIGHT DO TO YOU. WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IS TO PUNCH YOUR PIN IN THE REVERSE, I.E IF YOUR PIN IS 1254, YOU PUNCH 4521. THE MOMENT YOU PUNCH IN THE REVERSE, THE MONEY WILL COME OUT BUT WILL BE STUCK INTO THE MACHINE HALF WAY OUT AND IT WILL ALERT POLICE WITHOUT THE NOTICE OF THE THIEF. EVERY ATM HAS IT, IT IS SPECIALLY MADE TO SIGNIFY DANGER AND HELP. NOT EVERYONE IS AWARE OF THIS. FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND THOSE YOU CARE FOR.”

Reality Cheque

The question stands still without any support. The technology behind this SOS call does prevail, but, however, till date, banks have not installed it in their ATMs. So the chances of arrival of Police at the crime scene by entering the PIN in reverse is out of question.

Credit History

Long back in 1994, Joseph Zingher from Chicago developed the idea as well as software which will secretly alert the police when PIN is entered in reverse, and he made many unsuccessful attempts to sell the idea to banks in United States of America. Few states considered this idea but never took initiative to implement it. In 2004, lawmakers of Illinois & Kansas state passed a bill requesting, making the installation of the technology purely voluntary, banks to install this safety feature in their ATM machines. The bill was watered down at the behest of the banking industry.

In 2009, one more bill was proposed to make this reverse-pin safety feature mandatory for all the ATMs. According to information published on the Illinois General Assembly website the bill was “Re-referred to Assignments” in March 2009.

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis

The idea PIN reversal may change the life completely and may drastically reduce the ATM crimebut results may be different when this idea gets implemented. First and foremost problem that can be suggested is the problem of handling the palindrome PINs i.e. same backward as it was forward. For example: PIN 1991 will either raise the secret alarm every time it is entered or never raise the alarm at all even during the crime as it will confuse the system. Same problem can exist for the PIN with all identical digits like 8888.

Although this idea, when implemented, will send the secret alarm to the police about the robbery taking place, the robber would likely have well fled the scene before the law enforcement reaches them. Moreover if this system is available, the customer as well as the criminal would be well aware of it and hence it would help very little to discourage the robbery. A panic-stricken victim of an armed robbery might face problem in entering the PIN in reverse and will end up displaying the error message on the screen without any cash dispensed. This will do nothing help but further provoking the voilent armed robber and risking the health of the victim.

Furthermore, people make mistakes frequently while entering their ATM PIN. This, in some cases, might raise a false alarm and waste the time of the police.

Final Print

The people and authorities are becoming more security conscious and banks may decide similar technology to make consumer more secure and satisfied, but this ATM PIN reversal technology is currently NOT IN USE. Entering the PIN in reverse WILL NOT CALL POLICE and only display “INCORRECT PIN” error message, which may further risk the victim’s health. Hence, the above mentioned email and sms contains dangerously incorrect information and SHOULD NOT be blindly forwarded. The bank will publicize it directly in first-hand whenever they implement this PIN reversal alarm technology at ATMs.

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