You know you've had dreams about an ATM just suddenly spitting out the cash. We all have.
A group of crooks in Virginia, meanwhile, actually made it happen recently — illegally, of course!
Local news reports:
Thieves in Northern Virginia robbed a bank ATM of about $175,000 through a high-tech scheme known as "jackpotting," authorities say. They're believed to have gotten the ATM to spew cash like they hit the jackpot on a slot machine. ...
The thieves collected the cash for about 30 minutes without ever inserting a card, county police said. Instead, one of the suspects held a phone toward the ATM. Hours earlier, someone opened it with a key.
Security footage caught the scumbags at work:
Law enforcement said criminals are "able to install a malware [or a] virtual black box into some of these ATMs and then - using a USB drive or other electronic devices - they're able to return at a later date" and make the machine spew out crazy amounts of cash.
Last year criminals were indicted for a "jackpotting" scheme they carried out across multiple states.
In some cases crooks eschew fancy software and just go for broke:
As police noted, the theft ultimately harms all of us:
"Financial crimes are not victimless crimes. This money that is stolen from the financial institution is in the form of other things it could be used for like loans and lending. ... [The crimes] affect our interest rates, affect corporate insurance policies and other things like that. So, one way or another, consumers are affected by these crimes."
Hope they catch these creeps — and hope the bank gets its money back too.
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