UK ATM System Could Have Ruined Economy

seanyboy writes "The Register is running the story of how the UK banking system could have collapsed in the early 1990s, how easy it was at the time to withdraw against other people's accounts and the worrying case of a Bank's rogue IT Department." From the article: "What quickly became clear was that the law needed a system to provide proof that events had happened so that legal cases could be made. You might say that 'the computer debited the account', but to a barrister (and more importantly, a judge) that's not enough. Did the computer do it at random? In that case it's like a tree branch falling - an accident. Or did a person program it to do so? In which case the person must be able to testify about the precise circumstances when a debit could happen. Sounds daft, but the law rests on proving each step of an argument irrefutably."

Comments

What happened to me...

[Karma_fucker_sucker]

here in the US.

I went to withdraw from an ATM. I put the card in, entered my PIN, and selected the amount I wanted - $200.
The ATM goes nuts and procedes to give me only $160 while debiting my account two transactions: one for $200 and another for $160.
I call my credit union and I tell them what happened. They tell me to fax a letter stating that I was diputing the $200. I did. They audited the ATM.

Long story short, the credit union backed out the $200 debit.

Meanwhile, the paranoid old guy

[Recovering Hater]

lifts up his mattress and whispers to his stash of crumpled bills that he knew they were safe all along and the youngsters just don't know! They JUST DON'T KNOW!