BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

It doesn't sound like either of those movies. They just shaved off dollar amounts less than 1 cent from millions of transactions. This guy just had the machines spit out extra money when he entered his ATM card.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#5

Post by bitwize » Tue, May 24, 2011, 3:36 PM UTC

"...some cash machine in Bumsville, Idaho spits out $700 into the middle of the street. I did that! That was me!"

"You did this from your house?"

"What are you, stoned or stupid? You hack a bank across state lines, you get nailed by the FBI!"

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#6

Post by omouse » Tue, May 24, 2011, 4:09 PM UTC

Like father/BoA like son?

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#7

Post by bhavin » Tue, May 24, 2011, 4:22 PM UTC

One would wonder if there were any code reviews in place or not? Any code that has monetary effects has to go through a series of code reviews (saying from my experience working with a client in banking industry) and tests. I would be curious as to how the 'bug' went undetected until deployment!

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#8

Post by ck2 » Tue, May 24, 2011, 4:38 PM UTC

People in charge of the BofA mortgage signature fraud should go to prison too.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20049744-10391709.htm...

But I guess it's a lot easier to prosecute people who can't afford expensive lawyers.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#9

Post by endlessvoid94 » Tue, May 24, 2011, 4:39 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #5

"...some cash machine in Bumsville, Idaho spits out $700 into the middle of the street. I did that! That was me!" "You did this from your house?" "What are you, stoned or stupid? You hack a bank across state lines, you get nailed by the FBI!"

Man, I was JUST going to quote that. Well done.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#10

Post by delinka » Tue, May 24, 2011, 4:39 PM UTC

I wonder how they'd have felt about it making phantom lines of credit instead. (Of course, with interest.)

"Oh, it's Programmer D! How's it goin', D? You want $1,000? OK! And since you don't have enough money just now, I'll just jot this down for you to pay back later."

And magically, when I deposit $5,000, it pays back a few hundred on my, er, his loan. :-)