DANGEROUS ATM Urban legend!

I received this message in one of those infamous, mass hysteria, bulk forwarded e mail messages:

In the spite of armed robbery, here is something you may really need.

WHEN A THIEF FORCES YOU TO TAKE MONEY FROM THE ATM, DO NOT ARGUE OR RESIST, YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW WHAT HE OR SHE MIGHT DO
TO YOU.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IS TO PUNCH YOUR PIN IN THE REVERSE, I.E IF YOUR PIN IS 1254, YOU PUNCH 4521.
THE MOMENT YOU PUNCH IN THE REVERSE, THE MONEY WILL COME OUT BUT WILL BE STUCK INTO THE MACHINE HALF WAY OUT AND IT
WILL ALERT POLICE WITHOUT THE NOTICE OF THE THIEF.
EVERY ATM HAS IT, IT IS SPECIALLY MADE TO SIGNIFY DANGER AND HELP.
NOT EVERYONE IS AWARE OF THIS.
FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND THOSE YOU CARE FOR.

Why do I say that it is dangerous?

BECAUSE IT IS FALSE! 100% URBAN LEGEND.

Picture the scene, your granny, mother or whoever desperately entering her PIN in backwards and waiting for the cavalry to arrive to rescue her.

Not going to happen.

That is supposing she CAN enter the thing in backwards in a moment of extreme stress. Most of us have trouble enough remembering our PIN forwards at the best of times!

The thing that cooks my blood is that 30 seconds on Google, or Snopes or About or any number of other sites will tell you that this is crap and dangerous to boot.

Yes, the technology does exist and has done for a long time but it is not in use.

NEWSFLASH!

NOT EVERYTHING YOU READ IN AN E MAIL OR ON THE INTERNET IS TRUE!

I have written about  forwarding e mails here. Please read it again.

This e mail IS NOT HARMLESS because it can lull people into a false sense of security thereby exposing them to danger.

Use your common sense, the layout, language use, the use of capitals throughout should alert you to the fact that this is a hoax.

Just ask yourself if FNB would EVER send out information that looks as bad as this one does.

Common sense tells you that this is a hoax even before you check it out.

It may be a well meaning hoax, maybe the person who sent it believes it but this does not reduce the damage that it could cause.

Please do your entire mail list a favour, STOP FORWARDING THE E MAILS and if you really, really think you must, the information is true and of critical importance, here is some advice that will keep you out of trouble:

• Check the veracity of the information, as mentioned just by using Google, or Snopes or About.com you can satisfy yourself if the information has a reasonable chance of being true. Invest the few minutes required and save yourself from a lot of potential embarrassment.
• Don't fall for the hysterical, urgent, critically important "you must do this now" appeal that all of these things contain (Don't worry the world will not stop and no curse will befall you if you don't forward the message to at least 10 people)
• If you decide that you must inform you entire network about the content of the email, here is what to do:
  • Copy the message into a new e mail.
  • Address it to yourself.
  • Put all your other contact's e mail addresses in the BCC field, this will protect your contact's privacy and not display their address to all and sundry. (Remember that your contact's shared their e mail address with YOU, not your entire network, it is only good manners and practice to respect their privacy)

You should NEVER just forward any e mail to your entire network, do this often enough and your contacts will start blocking you as an irritating, brainless, spammer.

And you are not, are you?

Let's stay safe, sensible and be a good, reliable, considerate contact, one who people know that they can rely on.

Play your part in reducing spam.

Don't give your contact to the "address harvesters".