You are assuming that the ATM is owned by a bank. Assuming it is large. Assuming that bankers outside of the US are honest.
Many banks in Russia are actually owned by mafia. Rather than investing in safe loans and government bonds, they invest depositor money in brothels, gambling operations, and bootlegging. And they do not have an FDIC to insure depositors against loss in event of bank failure.
Furthermore, many street and convenience store ATM's (even in the US) are not owned by a bank. If there is not a reputable bank logo on it (I'd even go so far as to say if it is not physically attached to a bank building) don't trust it. Non-Bank owned ATMs are not as heavily regulated and can easily skim your card info and video capture your PIN for ID theft/fraud.
Given all that, I'm not the least bit surprised that the people running many of these things would run bootlegged software. My only surprise is that I haven't yet seen it in the US!
While your comments about white label ATMs do ring true, this isn't one - it's from Bank VTB, one of the largest banks in Russia. On top of that, it's a Wincor Nixdorf ProCash machine, which are the top of the line, as ATMs go (probably not obvious to you, but that machine has a variety of features to prevent card cloning, PIN theft, etc.)
They're very expensive, and WN has engineers to install them in every country. Unfortunately, said engineers are pretty useless, which would explain why it hasn't been activated.
Correct, I do not know specific ATM models, as I am on my bank's strategy wing, not operations.
However, "big bank" in Russia does not mean safe. Evidence of that is the epidemic assassination of bankers over the past decade or so, culminating in the murder of the chief banking supervisor in September 2006. These aren't hits by agitated clients; these are mafia killing each other. Yet, we think that the industry in the U.S. is "cut-throat."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ryan.cole.morris @ Jun 9th 2007 2:18PM
You are assuming that the ATM is owned by a bank. Assuming it is large. Assuming that bankers outside of the US are honest.
Many banks in Russia are actually owned by mafia. Rather than investing in safe loans and government bonds, they invest depositor money in brothels, gambling operations, and bootlegging. And they do not have an FDIC to insure depositors against loss in event of bank failure.
Furthermore, many street and convenience store ATM's (even in the US) are not owned by a bank. If there is not a reputable bank logo on it (I'd even go so far as to say if it is not physically attached to a bank building) don't trust it. Non-Bank owned ATMs are not as heavily regulated and can easily skim your card info and video capture your PIN for ID theft/fraud.
Given all that, I'm not the least bit surprised that the people running many of these things would run bootlegged software. My only surprise is that I haven't yet seen it in the US!
J. Henry @ Jun 9th 2007 2:57PM
While your comments about white label ATMs do ring true, this isn't one - it's from Bank VTB, one of the largest banks in Russia. On top of that, it's a Wincor Nixdorf ProCash machine, which are the top of the line, as ATMs go (probably not obvious to you, but that machine has a variety of features to prevent card cloning, PIN theft, etc.)
They're very expensive, and WN has engineers to install them in every country. Unfortunately, said engineers are pretty useless, which would explain why it hasn't been activated.
ryan.cole.morris @ Jun 9th 2007 3:38PM
Correct, I do not know specific ATM models, as I am on my bank's strategy wing, not operations.
However, "big bank" in Russia does not mean safe. Evidence of that is the epidemic assassination of bankers over the past decade or so, culminating in the murder of the chief banking supervisor in September 2006. These aren't hits by agitated clients; these are mafia killing each other. Yet, we think that the industry in the U.S. is "cut-throat."
Read about the assassination here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article638705.ece
Better than hollywood, this story!