[First National Bank issues this internal statement regarding the Pin Number Hoax. I am delighted that this Pin Number Hoax has been silenced so quickly by the banks. It was a nasty hoax. Imagine if someone tried it with our trigger-happy feel-nothing criminals… they might have suffered grievous bodily harm if they did got themselves locked out of their own a/cs and couldn’t draw the cash… Jan]

This message is to alert you to an email hoax currently in circulation regarding ATM PINs (text below). Should you receive this hoax email please DO NOT FORWARD it or support the miscommunication. The way PIN verification works at ATMs makes it impossible for ANY bank employee or system to determine the original PIN selected by a client. There is no way that any bank (if they follow VISA regulations) can systematically check if you entered your PIN backwards, making this mail misleading and in fact dangerous as the ATM will just respond with the normal PIN failure message.

œPIN NUMBER REVERSAL (GOOD TO KNOW)

If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM
machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse.

For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM Recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine.

The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.

This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it is seldom used because people don’t know it exists.

Please pass this along to everyone possible.

There will be a media statement issued by the Banking Industry to the public regarding this issue.

Issued by: Finance Risk and Audit