Paying for incidentals

#41
Rethinking all of this, I think that unless I am in a real bind during off banking hours, the best approach I'm going to use from this point on to getting cash is to use a teller and not an ATM. Requires some advance planning. But last time I went to my bank in the wee am hours I felt very uncomfortable getting cash as I was the only one around - there was the only occasional car driving down the street and someone bad could easily have been waiting for someone like me to use the ATM.

Also, I remember sitting in a shopping center lot during early evening hours waiting for someone and I watched person after person use the outside atm at a bank. I could easily see each person entering their pin. Putting a skimmer on such an atm, even if the atm was chip enabled, right after the bank closed then removing it in the early am hours would allow a crook to record the strip data and the corresponding pin. Then use that data at stand alone atms that did not have chip readers such as the ones at strip clubs, 7-11's etc.

Also, I remember reading about 20 years ago where some guys wheeled in an atm into a mall in Connecticut. No one, not even the mall security, thought anything of this. The atm was theirs, they bought it used and they modified it to just record the strip data and the pin and display the message "Sorry for the inconvenience, but cash is not available at this time" after a person swiped and entered their pin. At the end of the week the guys wheeled the atm out of the mall and made cards from the hundreds of swipes they had recorded. The went to various banks in NYC and over a weeks time cleared out the accounts of all the cards the made. Even if one of the account owners noticed that money was being taken out of their account the best they could do is freeze the account - there are a zillion banks in NYC and the guys were never caught. Absolutely brilliant.
 
#42
The SA website has a checkbox 'this is a gift card'.
Be sure to try checking that if you are having difficulties paying.

I think the mobile app offers different (more expensive) SA membership pricing than the web site, like $39/week rather than $69 per month.
 

pokler

Power Bottom
#43
Rethinking all of this, I think that unless I am in a real bind during off banking hours, the best approach I'm going to use from this point on to getting cash is to use a teller and not an ATM. Requires some advance planning. But last time I went to my bank in the wee am hours I felt very uncomfortable getting cash as I was the only one around - there was the only occasional car driving down the street and someone bad could easily have been waiting for someone like me to use the ATM.

Also, I remember sitting in a shopping center lot during early evening hours waiting for someone and I watched person after person use the outside atm at a bank. I could easily see each person entering their pin. Putting a skimmer on such an atm, even if the atm was chip enabled, right after the bank closed then removing it in the early am hours would allow a crook to record the strip data and the corresponding pin. Then use that data at stand alone atms that did not have chip readers such as the ones at strip clubs, 7-11's etc.

Also, I remember reading about 20 years ago where some guys wheeled in an atm into a mall in Connecticut. No one, not even the mall security, thought anything of this. The atm was theirs, they bought it used and they modified it to just record the strip data and the pin and display the message "Sorry for the inconvenience, but cash is not available at this time" after a person swiped and entered their pin. At the end of the week the guys wheeled the atm out of the mall and made cards from the hundreds of swipes they had recorded. The went to various banks in NYC and over a weeks time cleared out the accounts of all the cards the made. Even if one of the account owners noticed that money was being taken out of their account the best they could do is freeze the account - there are a zillion banks in NYC and the guys were never caught. Absolutely brilliant.
Those guys deserve their ill gotten gains for having the balls to do this.
 
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