Why it is not a good idea to use your birth year as an ATM PIN!

[webfact]

Why it is not a good idea to use your birth year as an ATM PIN!

 

 

Image: CCTV screenshot

 

An SCB bank customer who left their ATM card in a North Pattaya machine found out the hard way why it is not a good idea to use your birth year as a password or PIN number.

 

A woman - described in the Thai press as a Tom Boy - picked up the forgotten card and tried her own number to see if it would work on the stranger's ATM.

 

The woman keyed in 2522 (or 1989 in the Western year system) and it worked.

 

The thief went around several ATMs and got 55,000 baht before the card was retained by the bank as the owner had then reported it stolen.

 

But police at the resort got a clear picture on CCTV and soon had the culprit in custody naming her as Wilai, 38, said BEC-Tero news on TV.

 

Wilai had spent 8,000 of the loot but the police still recovered 47,000 baht.

 

Source: BEC-Tero News

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-10-31

[ezzra]

Come on, this must be a fluke of luck that the thief has the same birth

year, i use 1234 or abcd and i'm pretty sure that no one will ever use

these combinations...

[lamyai3]

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Come on, this must be a fluke of luck that the thief has the same birth

year, i use 1234 or abcd and i'm pretty sure that no one will ever use

these combinations...

 

Yes I use 1234. Easy to remember and safe as houses... there's no way I could have been born in that year...

[AhFarangJa]

I use my birth year and no-one has guessed it.......1901.........

[dotpoom]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Come on, this must be a fluke of luck that the thief has the same birth

year, i use 1234 or abcd and i'm pretty sure that no one will ever use

these combinations...

Exactly, a total fluke, and nothing to do with what the head line suggests.

  If they had given the reason for not using your birth year because people could discover it by getting to know you and finding it in your bin, or such like.....then it would make a little bit of sense.

[mikebell]

Whilst we're on the topic of banking this happened to me yesterday at my usual Kasikorn branch at Tesco Lotus on Suk.

Each month we (our juristic entity) withdraw 90,000 to pay our staff.  I duly presented the cheque and the cashier told me to enter the date.  I asked if she would do it as I don't know the Thai year. 'Cannot' but she wrote a series of numbers which I copied.  She realised she'd made a mistake and asked me to alter two of the numbers.  This I did in front of two staff who then told me the cheque was null and void and I would have to make another 40 kms round trip with another cheque.

I protested in vain; asked the manager to initial the alteration. 'Cannot'.

We are transferring 1.8 million to the Bangkok Bank.

[Jane Dough]

32 minutes ago, mikebell said:

Whilst we're on the topic of banking this happened to me yesterday at my usual Kasikorn branch at Tesco Lotus on Suk.

Each month we (our juristic entity) withdraw 90,000 to pay our staff.  I duly presented the cheque and the cashier told me to enter the date.  I asked if she would do it as I don't know the Thai year. 'Cannot' but she wrote a series of numbers which I copied.  She realised she'd made a mistake and asked me to alter two of the numbers.  This I did in front of two staff who then told me the cheque was null and void and I would have to make another 40 kms round trip with another cheque.

I protested in vain; asked the manager to initial the alteration. 'Cannot'.

We are transferring 1.8 million to the Bangkok Bank.

You have written a book about Thailand but you don't know the year?

[Pattaya46]

 I am rather surprised to see that there are still cards with an only 4-digits PIN code ??

I thought all cards now had a 6-digits code , even in Thailand. Maybe an old card?

My French Visa card and my Thai card at KasikornBank both have a 6-digits PIN

Edited October 31, 2017 by Pattaya46

[GordonP]

My UK(4), Thai (2) and French (1)  bank cards all have 4 digit pins. All with the exception of my French bank have been renewed during this calendar year.

[ekaterra]

"Wilai, 38" If she was born in 1989 she is 28 y.o

[Cheops]

7 minutes ago, ekaterra said:

"Wilai, 38" If she was born in 1989 she is 28 y.o

Born in 2522 makes her 38, but 1989 sb 1979

[Rimmer]

A troll post has been removed

[Cheops]

Thai banks should change the order in all ATM's in such way that you always get your card back first and then the money!

 

Furthermore people should keep only the bare minimum on their daily usage atm card to prevent too much loss in case a thief guessed your pin (or skimmed your card)

[LennyW]

6 hours ago, Pattaya46 said:

 I am rather surprised to see that there are still cards with an only 4-digits PIN code ??

I thought all cards now had a 6-digits code , even in Thailand. Maybe an old card?

My French Visa card and my Thai card at KasikornBank both have a 6-digits PIN

Working in Papua New Guinea just now and the Westpac ATM's have a 7 digit pin, but when you enter your Thai card the display comes up with the first 3 numbers completed at the start so you just enter your 4 numbers as normal.

[Nemesis7]

Well unfortunately most of us do use such PIN numbers for us to remember easily...

[Robertashley]

I thought that year 2500 in Buddhist years system started on 24th May 1956. So 2522 would correspond to during 1978.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

[katana]

22 hours ago, webfact said:

The woman keyed in 2522 (or 1989 in the Western year system) and it worked.

Think there's a typo there.

Thailand uses the Buddhist calendar which is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar eg the year 2017 CE is indicated as 2560.

So 2522 is 1979 not 1989.

[gk10002000]

23 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

 

Yes I use 1234. Easy to remember and safe as houses... there's no way I could have been born in that year...

That's the same number I use on my luggage!

[mikebell]

22 hours ago, Jane Dough said:

You have written a book about Thailand but you don't know the year?

Two books actually, which means I'm happy with words; I just have a problem with figures.  I know there's an easy-to-remember 543 difference in the Thai/Western calendar but doing the maths in front of a Thai teller defeated me.

[Just Weird]

On 10/31/2017 at 8:45 AM, mikebell said:

Whilst we're on the topic of banking this happened to me yesterday at my usual Kasikorn branch at Tesco Lotus on Suk.

Each month we (our juristic entity) withdraw 90,000 to pay our staff.  I duly presented the cheque and the cashier told me to enter the date.  I asked if she would do it as I don't know the Thai year. 'Cannot' but she wrote a series of numbers which I copied.  She realised she'd made a mistake and asked me to alter two of the numbers.  This I did in front of two staff who then told me the cheque was null and void and I would have to make another 40 kms round trip with another cheque.

I protested in vain; asked the manager to initial the alteration. 'Cannot'.

We are transferring 1.8 million to the Bangkok Bank.

You're blaming the bank for your omission?   Western calendar dates are acceptable on Thai bank documents, including cheques, and the cashier was right, she cannot complete someone else's cheque for them, neither can a non-signatory to the account (the manager in your case) authorise an alteration on your cheque.

 

Kasikorn won't miss your 1.8m.

[balo]

The new ATM cards ftom Kasikorn has a 6 digit pin code. Much safer.

[Cheops]

38 minutes ago, balo said:

The new ATM cards ftom Kasikorn has a 6 digit pin code. Much safer.

Yeah, much safer.. until they skim your card and record the pincode with a cam. It doesn't really matter if it's 4 or 6 digits. You can't guess a 4 digit code within 3 attempts, so you will need to know the code which then will be the same as for 6 digit code. If you keep your code unknown to others a 4 digit code will be fine.

 

Why don't they use iris or fingerprint scanners as code replacement? 

 

And they should change the order and give the card back before the money is spit out, so you won't forget your card. That will also reduce risk. 

[hawker9000]

On ‎10‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 3:31 AM, Nemesis7 said:

Well unfortunately most of us do use such PIN numbers for us to remember easily...

Come on now.  You can't remember ANY other number but your unaltered birth year?   Backwards; add one to each digit; move each digit one to the right or left and wrap the end digit; use someone else's birth year; some other significant year in your life; some other number entirely (street no. of your favorite bar or massage place...).    This is at least a case of something you likely use often enough that after the first few times you won't have trouble remembering it at all whatever it is.

[gk10002000]

On 10/31/2017 at 6:31 AM, Nemesis7 said:

Well unfortunately most of us do use such PIN numbers for us to remember easily...

Somebody I knew used for their old garage door open code: the 4 digits from the original Enterprise starship serial number from Star Trek, i.e. the 1701 from the NCC -1701.

[bkk6060]

On 10/31/2017 at 1:27 PM, Cheops said:

Thai banks should change the order in all ATM's in such way that you always get your card back first and then the money!

 

Furthermore people should keep only the bare minimum on their daily usage atm card to prevent too much loss in case a thief guessed your pin (or skimmed your card)

I have forgotten a card because of this.  After a few seconds if you do not grab it, it sucks it back in.  Good luck getting it back.

One other thing there are places where they will try to snag your code.

I was at a machine in Silom last year.

No BS, there was a Thai guy behind me, at an angle about ten feet away and he was pointing an object toward my keyboard.  I swear it was a camera of some sort I could see a light, similar to a pen light coming from the object.  I changed positions when I was finished the guy was gone.  I am convinced he was trying to steal my pass code.

Edited November 6, 2017 by bkk6060

[PattayaAngel]

"tried her own number"?  that's kinda strange?  pure bad luck that but she/he was caught so all's well.