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Reversing PIN Numbers

I said:
lupinwick said:
Why (assuming that the world needs a cashpoint "panic button") don't they just fix it so that hitting "0" before your PIN alerts the authorities whilst still dispensing cash? I'm not aware that any PIN ever begins with a zero.
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Mine does.
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There's always one awkward bugger, isn't there?
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Then Moooksta said:
Awkward bugger number two raises hand.

Why not just fit a Panic button?
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...and [i:24t3eq59]then[/i] synchronicity said:
Peripart said:
I'm not aware that any PIN ever begins with a zero.
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Err--I know of at least one that does. ;)
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I make that three!
 
But surely the mugger would know your real pin having found the little bit of paper as he was searching through your wallet, all of my pins begin with 0.
 
Well if you write it down like that it´s your own fault.
 
Xanatico said:
Well if you write it down like that it´s your own fault.
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Yeah. Do what I do and write it on the back of the card next to your signature. Though my secret personal PIN number is easy for me (and only me) to remember - it's the year I was born! Good eh?
 
Frobush said:
Though my secret personal PIN number is easy for me (and only me) to remember - it's the year I was born!
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I do trust that you're joshing us. Many banks won't issue cards with PINs from 1900 through 1999, and I assume 2000-2007 will follow shortly, if they haven't already.

Computer passwords are just as bad - I've read that over half of American men use the name of their favorite local Rounders or Football team.
 
ROUNDERS??? they used to make us play that in school but with a tennis racket :roll: i think we would have been better off bringing back nuns and embroidery classes.
do adults play rounders?
 
placeholder said:
ROUNDERS??? they used to make us play that in school but with a tennis racket :roll: i think we would have been better off bringing back nuns and embroidery classes.
do adults play rounders?
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methinks in the USA rounders mutated into baseball.
 
Didn't baseball originate in Britain (hence the name of Derby County's old ground)? :?
 
A lot of people use their pets' or childrens' names as computer passwords.

Basketball was invented by a Canadian.
 
Problem solved! :lol:

'Yellow box' plan to beat muggers

th_55429__42550445_cashpoint_203_122_149lo.jpg


Yellow lines are to be painted on the pavement around cash machines across the UK in a Home Office initiative to reduce the number of muggings.

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said the so-called "privacy spaces" were a "simple common sense" measure that had been shown to cut crime.

The job of painting the lines will be given to young offenders.

The government is under pressure to tackle street crime after figures last month showed it was on the rise.

"Pilots have shown that 'privacy spaces' can reduce crime at bank machines and we're working with industry to roll these out," said Mr Coaker.

He said the boxes, which will be partly funded by High Street banks through their APACS payment association, made it easier for potential victims to spot robbers encroaching on their space.

Guidance on the "design and installation" of the boxes has been developed jointly by the Home Office, Local Government Association and APACS, the Home Office said in a statement.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS, said: "A marked out zone around a cash machine may not seem like much of a deterrent, but the evidence points to a reduction in fraud coupled with a greater sense of security for cash machine users.

"The vast majority of cash machine withdrawals take place crime free and the privacy space initiative will help to reduce this type of crime even further."

A 2003 pilot scheme by Greater Manchester Police found offences within 150 metres of cash machines with privacy spaces went down by 66% compared with a reduction of 34% within 150 metres of those without, the Home Office said.

The government has been under pressure to do more to tackle robberies after figures last month showed the risk of being a victim of crime is rising at the fastest rate in more than 10 years.

Robberies went up by 1% according to recorded crime figures for July to September 2006, while the widely-respected British Crime Survey suggested they had gone up by 14%.

But Mr Coaker said "people should feel safer now" because "violent crime have fallen by over a third in the last nine years and the risk of being a victim is at a historic low".

He said the government was working with industry to reduce street crime and had also secured a renewed pledge from mobile phone operators to meet their target of blocking stolen phones.

The Local Government Association is recommending offenders on community sentences, under supervision of the Youth Offending Team or on probation, should be given the job of painting the "privacy spaces".

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/02/08 15:47:10 GMT

© BBC MMVII
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Do people really stand that close to others when waiting for a bank machine? Here the unspoken rule is at least 5-6 feet.
 
Yes it doesn´t say how big it is, but it doesn´t even look a meter across.
 
The ones I've seen are about a metre (3 ft ish) across, and about 1.5 m (4'6") long. Not much, true, but it does mean nobody is literally looking over your shoulder.

That said, they're all overlooked by CCTV cameras and within spitting distance of the central Police station.
 
Mutated?

Sincerely,

Good Old Three-Headed, Eight-Legged, Thousand-Eyed Bat-Winged OTR
 
stuneville said:
The ones I've seen are about a metre (3 ft ish) across, and about 1.5 m (4'6") long. Not much, true, but it does mean nobody is literally looking over your shoulder.

That said, they're all overlooked by CCTV cameras and within spitting distance of the central Police station.
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So would they still work if the police station was 20 miles away and there was no CCTV?

Do people really stand that close to others when waiting for a bank machine? Here the unspoken rule is at least 5-6 feet.
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About the same here (and I'm UK based). I find the whole thing very strange, we have to be told to respect personal privacy? Can I blame the press (repeated into intrusions into privacy) and reality TV (big brother et al) for such a sad state of affairs?
 
I just saw on a BBC message board someone asking about this, as they had been sent an e-mail mentioning the reverse pin thing.
 
I still maintain that Reversing Pin Numbers makes a lot more sense than the method I previously touted - the one involving the trap door, the pit and the sharpened stakes.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Frobush said:
Amazing. It obviously can't work (as discussed posts passim).
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But there is nothing unworkable about the idea. It's simply not used. That's quite a difference!

Snopes says:

Such a system was....patented in 1998 by Joseph Zingher, a Chicago businessman. His SafetyPin System would alert police that a crime was in progress when a cardholder at an ATM keyed in the reverse of his personal identification numbers....Zingher's system included work-arounds for [palindromic] numeric combinations.
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Just because it's patented doesn't mean it works. Ideas are patented, regardless of whether or not they work.
 
Oh? Try patenting a perpetual motion machine, at least in the United States. Please keep me informed of your progress.
 
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