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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2808 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 29, 2024

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Yesterday, I stopped by a CVS to use the ATM there.

I ended up stuck behind a man who used the ATM as follows: he inserted a card he had, entered the PIN, and pressed the "Credit" option and withdrew 100 dollars. He then repeated this same process probably 10 or 11 times: using the same card, he did that and withdrew 100 more dollars, over and over again.

Is this is a legitimate thing to do? I can't think of why someone would do that. I got a feeling like it was some kind of fraudulent behavior, but I just don't really know. I guess maybe he didn't know how to use the ATM properly, but that doesn't feel likely to me. He was a younger man in apparent possession of all his mental faculties.

As a secondary question: if you see someone who is definitely using some kind of stolen card, or tampering with an ATM in some way... what do you even do then? Who would you tell? (Assuming you didn't want to just ignore it, which is what I would probably do by default.)

I don't know why a person would do this, but if he used his credit card to pull cash, that would be considered a "cash advance" which comes with its own set of fees and high interest rates. Only a truly desperate (or stupid) person would choose this option.

Or a money mule who is exploiting somebody else's card for a small fee.

I only use an ATM when a business owner offers a 10% discount for paying in cash, so it’s entirely possible he just lacked the specific knowledge of how to use it.

Does the ATM in question give different bills for amounts over vs under $100? I've done something similar when I wanted to get a bunch of twenties from an ATM that chooses the bills it gives you based on the amount withdrawn.

I'm not sure about that, honestly. From that specific ATM, I have never withdrawn more than like 80 dollars at a time; though I know it can do more.

I was more weirded out by the way he kept picking the "credit" option. My understanding is that this incurs big fees for people that use a credit card to get cash advances. It made me think that he was using a stolen card. But - I don't know that much about the ins and outs of that, so I might be mistaken.

I am reminded of the posters I used to see in airports and on public transit, that said, "If you see something, say something!" I suppose they were looking out for bomb threats, etc.; but how do I know if the "something" I've seen is pertinent to anything?

Foreign debit cards need to pick the "credit" option to get cash out of US ATMs.

How old was he? Despite spending all their lives on their phones, a lot of zoomers are staggeringly technologically incompetent and don't know how to carry out basic computer tasks like sending emails or creating Word docs. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this man literally didn't know you could request a custom amount of money, particularly given that zoomers use cash far less frequently than any previous generation.

He was in his 20s.

I didn't look at it from your perspective, but now I'm really starting to see it that way, actually.

I guess maybe he didn't know how to use the ATM properly, but that doesn't feel likely to me. He was a younger man in apparent possession of all his mental faculties.

I hear the whippersnappers nowadays prefer newfangled contraptions like CashApp and Venmo over physical bills, so it isn't that unlikely that they would be unfamiliar with ATMs.

I hear the whippersnappers nowadays prefer newfangled contraptions like CashApp and Venmo over physical bills newfangled contraptions like CashApp and Venmo

Those apps are very convenient. The cashless problem is also prevalent among millennials, gen X, and boomers.

Does the ATM offer more than 100 at a time?

It does. I don't know if he knew that, though.

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