TIL in 2011, a 29-year-old Australian bartender found an ATM glitch that allowed him to withdraw way beyond his balance. In a bender that lasted four-and-half months, he managed to spend around $1.6 million of the bank’s money.

[u/Fit_Winter_7688]

https://touzafair.com/this-australian-bartender-found-an-atm-glitch-and-blew-1-6-million/

[removed] — view removed post

[u/I_Don-t_Care]

wat i dont understand is, if he had to double his amount spent (credit accounts debt) every time he did the trick to cover his debt with the glitched money, then wouldn't it come to an exponential point really fast where he'd have to transfer millions to cover millions? 1.6 million actually sounds reasonable considering this

[u/foldingcouch → u/I_Don-t_Care]

I think the guy did an AMA one time and according to him he basically only spent the money on things that couldn't be seized by the bank when they figured out what he was doing, so he didn't spend nearly as much as he could have.

He spent most of it on travel and friends university tuition.

[u/lebastss → u/foldingcouch]

That's actually very smart.

[u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze → u/lebastss]

Does the gov care which currency they recover? Couldn't it take his honestly earned money as repayment?

[u/Tye-Evans → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

I think I read about this, IIRC he had to pay the debt accrued still tie to his account (a few thousand IIRC) and then the government called it even

[u/ChadGPT___ → u/Tye-Evans]

He also went to prison for a year

[u/redog → u/ChadGPT___]

I'd gladly suck up a year for one and a half million.

[u/rackmountrambo → u/redog]

Where I live, that's just a modest house price.

[u/PrimusFucks → u/rackmountrambo]

I'd go to prison for a year for a modest house. Better than a 30 year mortgage.

[u/THEREALCAPSLOCKSMITH → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

they cant force u to work tho, right?

[u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze → u/THEREALCAPSLOCKSMITH]

I'm not a lawyer, or Australian, but in the States, they can garnish your wages as restitution/ impose fines to the point of financial ruin. If you want to live in poverty just so they won't have anything to recover from your estate, you're probably just making it worse for yourself. Not sure if declaring bankruptcy would help. That would have repercussions of its own.

[u/starmartyr → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

Bankruptcy can discharge some debts incurred by court judgments in the US but there are exceptions. One of these exceptions is fraud.

[u/lady_spyda → u/starmartyr]

Well, working class fraud.

[u/LateTripper → u/lady_spyda]

Ain’t that a bitch

[u/134608642 → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

If you owe 1.6 mil you pay back $473.37 per week for 65 years to cover the debt. You could either live in poverty and pay em back or live in poverty and not pay em back. Choice is yours. In order to pay them back and not be in poverty you need to earn more than 75% of Australians and that would put you just above poverty level.

You’re better off just saying fuck it not gonna pay ‘em back. You would end up with less stress and more than likely the same standard of living, so ultimately you would live longer. Winning.

[u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze → u/134608642]

Thanks for doing the math for me there. I don't think it would necessarily work like that. They might take a percentage of your pay so you're still able to raise your standard of living and incentivized to pay back as much as they can realistically get from you, even if it is ultimately less than the original amount.

[u/134608642 → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

A percentage take would still be pretty bad. The dude is as of the article on $22 an hour or $880 a week so he is already in the bottom half of earners. As median income is $1250 a week. Take a 10% cut over 65 yr and the bank gets less than 300k and the guy would be I. The bottom 12% of earners in Aus. According to this website the poverty line is half the median wage. 10% of the dudes wages would put him at $792/week and half median is $625/week so he would be getting a few extra bucks over poverty wages and the bank would get sweet fuck all restitution.

I’m not saying the guy shouldn’t face consequences I’m just saying there is little reason to pay back the debt.

[u/tucci007 → u/134608642]

median income is $1250 a week.

what was it in 2011? because that' s when this happened

[u/rich1051414 → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

Often they will take a settlement that's a fraction of what is owed, many years after the debt is applied. However, it will be viewed as a default on your credit record. So you are never getting a reasonable loan.

[u/Jimbuscus → u/rich1051414]

Defaults in Australia cannot remain on file after 7 years.

[u/DubiousChicken69 → u/rich1051414]

Guy probably just worked under the table for a few years like every person in america that owes back child support.

[u/_Rioben_ → u/134608642]

Speaking from ignorance here, cant he go to another country and start from zero?

He liked to travel.

[u/IseeItsIcey → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

You can't really have your wages garnished for non government debt in Australia and even if they get a court order it can't be so much as a tax to put you into poverty. Would most likely be 50-100 a week unless he earned a lot.

[u/rr24m23a → u/IseeItsIcey]

Yeah unless you owe the ATO or some other obscure government agency then you ain't going to jail for a debt If this became fraud which I think this would do then that's breaking a law and you're possibly going to jail

Same as banks and employeers can't make you pay back over payments with out consent. If you see you have extra money in your account just don't answer the phone

Private debt like bank loans get sold to collections agency's in bulk and then they try and recover the money it goes like this

I default $50k to the bank. Bank wrap that up with a load of other similar defaults and sell the "debt" for a fraction of the book value. Debt collectors then hassle you to pay the full amount even if it's on small repayments over years. If they don't get anything from you and get sick of chasing the debt they'll then sell it on to some other mob who have a crack and on and on it goes. Best thing you can do is if a private mob call and say you owe them $10k from a bank debt is offer them about $1000. I'll almost guarantee they'll put you on hold and come back with some other number. Just negotiate from there and that you want the debt cleared from your record once paid. In Australia any way. Not sure about the rest of the world

[u/OldTomato4 → u/rr24m23a]

In the US even if you pay debts in collections they don't have to take it off your record, they just mark it as paid.

[u/Lengthofawhile → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

In the US he'd likely just go to prison for some sort of theft or fraud.

[u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze → u/Lengthofawhile]

Could the bank still go after him in civil court?

[u/Lengthofawhile → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

In the US, most definitely. And income garnishment/restitution can be conditions of the sentence. Some inmates are already paying restitution in prison even though they're paid next to nothing. But really anything the bank does to get the money back is dependent upon him either being honest, or having money he can't hide that the bank can get automatic garnishment on.

[u/IMSOGIRL → u/THEREALCAPSLOCKSMITH]

yes, spend 4.5 months kind of traveling only to ruin the rest of your life with your choice of not being able to save money ever or just being unemployed for life. Bigbrain.jpg

[u/Curious_Buffalo_1206 → u/IMSOGIRL]

Nah, you just work under the table from now on, and count yourself among the unbanked population. Your “bank account” is your mattress now. These comments really show how sheltered redditors are… the grey market is enormous.

Not saying it’s a good life plan, but it’s also not the end of the world either.

[u/jxd73 → u/Curious_Buffalo_1206]

The solution to getting caught is more frauds, obviously

[u/denzik → u/jxd73]

Tax fraud, the best fraud

[u/Curious_Buffalo_1206 → u/jxd73]

Unironically yes. Mind you, I’m not endorsing it. It’s just kinda inevitable.

Fraud has an extremely high recividism rate to begin with, and in this scenario, how is more fraud not their best course of action? Material arguments only — morality is objectively irrelevant to the fraudster.

The only potentially better move I see on the board is permanently fucking off to Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, etc, where they can’t garnish your income. Personal debts are almost never enforced internationally.

[u/HippoIcy7473 → u/My_Soul_to_Squeeze]

I suspect he didn’t have a whole lot of assets

[u/thepastyprince → u/foldingcouch]

I thought the bank never figured it out though, I was under the impression that he eventually admitted to it and the bank had no idea that it was even happening.

[u/foldingcouch → u/thepastyprince]

Eventually the bank was going to figure it out, it was always just a question of how long he can get away with it and what happens after it's discovered.

[u/5G-FACT-FUCK → u/foldingcouch]

The details behind this story lead me to believe otherwise.

He called them, sent them letters and called them again. He went in branch and didn't get anywhere. He had to fight to even get the bank to look at the situation properly.

[u/Amaurotica → u/5G-FACT-FUCK]

imagine being so incompetent at your job that you are too lazy to check an account on a computer for 2 minutes and instead you cost the bank 1.6 million in lost money

holy fuck some people really luck out on their jobs

[u/papaja7312 → u/Amaurotica]

People at the bank branch have absolutely no relation to the accounting. Their job is to make the customer happy, not listen about potential fraud.

[u/Amaurotica → u/papaja7312]

you give them ID and they literally can open your account and see your funds

[u/Desperate_Banana_677 → u/Amaurotica]

yeah but tellers generally aren’t mean to perform in-depth investigations on their clients and their transaction history. their job is to keep the line moving, and if a customer does need more individual attention, then the teller might refer them to a banker. and even then, retail bankers are pretty busy themselves, and are more incentivized to make sales and build relationships than they are to figure out the exact nature of somebody’s income. if they have doubts about a story, they might do a little digging of their own, but beyond that they’re just going to call another department to deal with it.

it’s a very bureaucratic system.

[u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist → u/5G-FACT-FUCK]

The branch people are just customer service. The actual bank accountants have no interaction with the public and there is no way to contact them either.

[u/SilentSamurai → u/5G-FACT-FUCK]

Was that banks name Silicon Valley Bank by chance...?

[u/Additional_Meeting_2 → u/foldingcouch]

At least with the amounts he spent.

[u/sc00bs000 → u/foldingcouch]

He did a talk on the radio aswell, he partied pretty hard with it. Expensive diners, clubbing... experiences that can't be seized.

Pretty smart tbh

[u/tuffymon → u/foldingcouch]

I'd like to think for such a chad move to pay for buddies tuition, they helped him back in some way later.

[u/herzy3 → u/tuffymon]

Absolutely. The point is that the money couldn't be clawed back this way.

[u/tlst9999 → u/foldingcouch]

Ah yes. The old trick from that Chinese wise man.

Big noble hired a wise man to collect his debts from the people in his territory, and was told to buy something valuable which he doesn't already have with the money. Man sorted who could pay and who couldn't pay. For those who couldn't pay, he destroyed their IOUs.

He went back and told his employer: Sir. I have bought you honor.

[u/Yglorba → u/tlst9999]

I think the lesson there is that a scummy landlord shouldn't hire a wise philosopher for debt collection. What the hell did he expect to happen? What was the wise man supposed to do, quote Confucius at people until they paid their debts?

[u/HermitBee → u/Yglorba]

I think the lesson there is that a scummy landlord shouldn't hire a wise philosopher for debt collection.

There's no money in wise philosophy though. Most wise philosophers end up as baristas or debt collectors on the side.

[u/Oddity83 → u/foldingcouch]

Reminds me of Brewster’s Millions.

[u/SparkySailor → u/foldingcouch]

Precious metals and privacy based cryptocurrency. You literally cannot seize monero and precious metal coins are not serialized. Just give them to an accomplice lmao

[u/BecauseItWasThere → u/SparkySailor]

To be fair, it was 2011. Bitcoin existed but few knew about it.

[u/autoHQ → u/BecauseItWasThere]

Imagine if he blew all that money on BTC back in the day just for shits and giggles.

[u/Topsy_Kretzz → u/autoHQ]

The dude wouldve been a billionaire off the books

[u/papalonian → u/Topsy_Kretzz]

"You know, I feel really bad for stealing that - what was it again? - $1.6 million. I'd be willing to pay it all back actually."

[u/andreasbeer1981 → u/papalonian]

never mind, make it double.

[u/sirgog → u/autoHQ]

Probably would have lost it all in the Mt Gox fraud, or one of the other ones.

[u/pigfacepigbody → u/sirgog]

Ughhhhhhhh this hurts to read hahah

[u/ca_kingmaker → u/SparkySailor]

Don’t go into a life of crime, you’re going to find that your career as a mastermind isn’t going to meet your expectations.

[u/arsenix → u/SparkySailor]

Um. Yes they certainly can. Law enforcement seizes crypto all the time. They also find and prosecute accomplices and seize their shit too.

[u/Illustrious_Crab1060 → u/arsenix]

That's if you're stupid enough to buy it on KYC exchanges and not transfer it to a private wallet, even launder it

[u/ElJamoquio → u/arsenix]

They also find and prosecute accomplices and seize their shit too.

Unless you tell them you spent it all on vacations.

[u/JMS1991 → u/ElJamoquio]

A guy in a suit and sunglasses will show up to your door and use the flashy thing from Men in Black to make you forget about your vacations. /s

[u/ironicfall → u/arsenix]

tbf he was talking about monero, which is not like bitcoin in the sense that the transactions arent visible publicly. but you’d still need the physical wallet which they can seize and they can track if you use cash to buy it in the first place i guess

[u/notcaffeinefree → u/SparkySailor]

Or just put that 1.6 million into a high interest account. Eventually when they find out you just give the money back and keep the interest earned.

[u/SparkySailor → u/notcaffeinefree]

Unless that account is at another bank, i feel like they would keep the interest.

[u/OldWiseMann → u/SparkySailor]

Even at another bank that’s profit over a crime, which is seizable in Australia

[u/RajaRajaC → u/I_Don-t_Care]

Can someone please explain what he did? I just don't understand it.

[u/Lingering_Dorkness → u/RajaRajaC]

From what I understand, he first discovered a weird glitch using an ATM early in the morning (like 2am or 3am) when he was out drinking with mates. iirc He transferred some money over from one account to another then withdrew it. When he checked his accounts later that day he found the money hadn't been taken out of the first account. He tried doing the same the following night and the same thing happened: money moved over and withdrawn but no money transferred from the account. Seems that he just lucked on the exact time that his Bank daily rebooted the ATM machine which resulted in it making, but not recording, the transfer.

He waited a while but nothing happened – his Bank never discovered or contacted him about their mistake – and went a bit crazy transferring and withdrawing more and more money. In the end he became worried they would catch up with him and he would end up jailed for years so went into his bank and confessed. The bank did nothing so he went to the police and confessed.

[u/chadbarrett → u/Lingering_Dorkness]

I don't think he went to the police. The banks did nothing because it would take a while to fix the exploit. So the banks decided it would be better to just let him keep the money instead of making it public. But the idiot decided to go on a press tour after a few years, after the exploit was finally fixed, so THEN they decided to get the cops involved.

If he would have stayed quiet, he would have been fine.

[u/chrisisbest197 → u/chadbarrett]

He kept talking about how he would get anxiety attacks so I think he wanted some kind of consequence so he could move past it.

[u/gil_bz → u/RajaRajaC]

There is this nice video explaining it. From what I remember, Each day he could withdraw more than he has in his account with this trick, but he would get in debt for it the next day, so he just withdrew more money each day and spent it.

[u/SatansLoLHelper → u/I_Don-t_Care]

It's like Brewster's Millions, except he doesn't get $7M at the end.

** $1M would have been about $35M today, $250M for the bonus. But you know what, $1M is lifechanging 101 years later, at this point inflation doesn't matter.

[u/LukeGoldberg72 → u/I_Don-t_Care]

He would’ve had more luck being a politician. They all tell the special interest groups behind closed doors they’ll obey their orders, in exchange for campaign funds/expensive favors/ cash, then exponentially increase their wealth while in office

[u/DickRanchez]

Fairly certain this guy did an AMA here once, pretty solid read!

[u/OldWiseMann → u/DickRanchez]

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9pd100/i_stole_over_16_million_dollars_from_an/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb

[u/AnAverageBengali007 → u/OldWiseMann]

Dude literally turned himself in.

The bank didn’t even realise they were missing millions of dollars from their balance sheets.

[u/blueasian0682 → u/AnAverageBengali007]

Exactly, good lad. And what a shitty bank system.

[u/Square_Salary_4014 → u/blueasian0682]

Good lad??? Dude fuck banks !

[u/Bigingreen → u/AnAverageBengali007]

Millions is chump change when your bank rolls in trillions.

[u/ccm596 → u/OldWiseMann]

He and I have the same drink, Amaretto Sour. Neat

[u/greenman10069 → u/ccm596]

A neat amaretto is just amaretto /s

[u/Phustercluck → u/ccm596]

Samsies. With a dash of bitters.

[u/Cannabisreviewpdx_ → u/DickRanchez]

There's an ATM at a shop I work that occasionally (seems like one out of maybe like 50-150 uses) the motor will kick back on after it's dispensed the money, and dispense the same amount again without charging the card for the second time. It's operated by some company (not related to us) that I don't think is 100% local, but the dude that refills em got told about it by management first like 4-5 months ago, and he said "my accountant said it all checks out." My thought was "fire your accountant" but eventually he came in last month and apparently was asking employees if they've seen anyone open it or have been taking money out of it themselves 😂. Crazy, vaguely similar story to OP playing out in my shop as of late.

[u/l_l-l-l_l → u/DickRanchez]

There's a podcast about it calledThe Glitch

[u/Analysis-Klutzy]

Fun fact. Bank errors are on the customer. If a bank error occurs in your favour you are obliged to contact the bank and correct it. Spending the money is fraud despite no deception occurring on your end.

[u/One_Eyed_Kitten → u/Analysis-Klutzy]

Pffft, That's not what Monopoly says.

[u/Ted-Clubberlang → u/One_Eyed_Kitten]

"You don't go by Monopoly, man. That game is nuts. Nobody just pick up Get Out of Jail Free cards. Those things cost thousands." -Creed Bratton

[u/dchobo → u/One_Eyed_Kitten]

Well Monopoly also says the bank cannot go bankrupt

[u/The_Hipster_Cow → u/dchobo]

JPow would agree

[u/Avien → u/The_Hipster_Cow]

JPow is gonna repeat the events of The Weimar Republic and kill us all with hyperinflation, just so a few rich assholes don't face consequences of their greedy, insane bets against the U.S. Economy

[u/Pelverino → u/Avien]

Is one of these rich people Ken Griffin, the financial terrorist? :)

[u/timshel42 → u/Analysis-Klutzy]

its almost as if the laws and regulations are written by the rich to protect the rich

[u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin → u/timshel42]

“When you’re a grownup, you can make the rules.”

Sincerely, rich people

[u/dirtyh4rry → u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin]

That's rich of them

[u/AdminsAreLazyID10TS → u/timshel42]

...

If your friend accidentally sent you money, or you got access to their account through a glitch, or whatever, would you say "fuck you, it's mine now?"

I don't particularly care about any capitalist institution getting robbed, but let's not pretend this isn't stealing from thieves.

[u/UltmitCuest → u/AdminsAreLazyID10TS]

The banks arent your friend

[u/OldWiseMann → u/UltmitCuest]

If you rob a bank, they get the money back

[u/Additional_Meeting_2 → u/UltmitCuest]

It’s the same laws regarding both, that’s the point. It protects you too, if you accidentally spend too much to a friend or a bank you can get it back. I don’t know why people would need to keep accidentally spent money.

[u/EaLordOfTheDepths- → u/AdminsAreLazyID10TS]

I honestly don't know if half the people replying to you are 14 or if they just genuinely don't know how to separate emotion from logic, but you're absolutely right, it's obviously theft whether they want to admit it or not.

Just like I wouldn't condem a poor person for stealing bread to feed their family, I wouldn't condem someone for taking money from a faceless, uncaring bank, but that doesn't change the fact that it is, by its literal definition, stealing lol.

[u/ARobotJew → u/AdminsAreLazyID10TS]

I would definitely say that if my friend was the one responsible for the glitchy system and also they gave me an overdraw charge last week.

[u/isaac9092 → u/ARobotJew]

Yeah I don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, bankers aren’t “like when our friends accidentally sent us money”.

[u/kelu213 → u/Analysis-Klutzy]

But I thought my bank was just nice and gave me an extra $1.6 million.

[u/TackyBrad → u/kelu213]

Just a loyalty bonus. They've appreciated your $37.54 balance over the years since college

[u/Nopengnogain → u/Analysis-Klutzy]

But if the bankers spend money they don’t have and cause a global economic meltdown, everyone gets away scot-free.

[u/KnowOneNymous → u/Nopengnogain]

I love that you think everyone gets away with it. The perpetrators do, we collectively get fucked with it.

[u/damian2000 → u/KnowOneNymous]

They not only get away with it, they normally get to keep their bonuses

https://www.efinancialcareers.com.au/news/2023/02/credit-suisse-md-bonuses

But they get them in instalments instead of a lump sum, violins out for those guys.

[u/WhereDaGold → u/Analysis-Klutzy]

I’ve found money sitting in atms 4 times within the last 10-15 years. Nothing big, most recently was two $5s, one was two $20s and the other two times were a single $20 each. The most recent time I started getting paranoid that I would be tracked through the gas station cameras and having paid for my stuff with a debit card. That fear alone wasn’t worth the ten dollars. I doubt it would ever go that far but it could.

Then a week after the most recent incident I was in a Walmart and noticed a $20 scratch off sitting in a lotto machine. I grabbed it as I was walking by but was wearing a shirt with my employers name, so I turned it into customer service. Again I figured someone would realize they left it behind, cameras be checked, see me at self checkout and find me.

Small amounts like these should be finders keepers lol, I’d expect my shit to be gone if I ever realized I left it behind

[u/13yearsofage → u/WhereDaGold]

odd, as for the last 10 years, ATMS spit out that money, and if it's not grabbed in a set time frame will roll back into the machine

[u/WhereDaGold → u/13yearsofage]

Not on old atms where it just falls into a tray

[u/Britoz → u/WhereDaGold]

Worst 19th birthday ever, leaving all my savings for the day in the machine and someone grabbed it before it took it back in. I was too busy chatting and noticed pretty quickly, but not quickly enough.

I really hope that person needed the money and wasn't just being a prick.

[u/PowerParkRanger → u/Britoz]

How many 19th birthdays have you had ?

[u/Britoz → u/PowerParkRanger]

I could only afford 2 when I was young. Not like you kids these days.

[u/MechaSheeva → u/WhereDaGold]

My friend found a giftcard on the ground while he was working at Walmart. I think he spent it on junk food for his break, but he ended up getting fired and IIRC arrested for it.

[u/Mr_Cromer → u/MechaSheeva]

Arrested? For a gift card?!

[u/thatawesomeguydotcom → u/WhereDaGold]

I've found money in ATMs or simular a few times and always turned it in. I know that chances are it won't be claimed and it will just be pocketed by staff/police, but I always think back to the times I've lost money or items and wished someone was honest enough to turn it in.

[u/SwitchAny5927 → u/WhereDaGold]

i can't imagine being this high anxiety and/or unable to conceptualize likely consequences of your actions. do you just not have much experience breaking rules?

[u/oby100 → u/SwitchAny5927]

lol for real. Maybe he's worried that Santa's always watching.

Personally, I believe in trying to be morally good when other people are affected. Yet, there's just no damn way people are coming back for $10 or a scratcher. In those cases, I'd just look around and take it.

Yet, I would never take money I saw someone drop. It's kind of crazy that the other guy is so paranoid he thinks they're gonna check cctv and track him down based on his nametag lol

[u/Terrible_Donkey_8290 → u/oby100]

As a former grocery worker the idea of someone asking to look at footage over $10 or better yet, a scratch ticket is hilarious lol

[u/bumba_clock → u/Analysis-Klutzy]

Doesn’t sound very fun

[u/rain168]

The same glitch that banks are using now!

[u/WolfandLight → u/rain168]

If he had taken another 999 M, they might have bailed him out too!

[u/Lengthofawhile → u/WolfandLight]

"This fraudster is too big to fail."

[u/RazorsDonut → u/WolfandLight]

Is this a reference to SVB?

[u/WorldClassShart → u/RazorsDonut]

Yeah, they're one of those people that think SVB was bailed out, not understanding how FDIC or asset seizure works.

SVB wasn't bailed out. Rep. Jeff Jackson (NC) explains it nicely, and succinctly here

This is NOT a bailout. None of the money to creditors is coming from taxpayers, but from safeguards that were built in after the 2008 collapse and actual bailout, which was shunted off to the taxpayers. This will not come from taxpayers, but from FDIC and DIF.

IIRC, liquidating SVB assets will also be a part of it.

Anyone that thinks SVB is getting bailed out, doesn't know what a bailout is, or what is actually going on.

[u/ClothesPhysical597 → u/rain168]

Well, looks like the bank finally got a taste of their own medicine, cheers to the glitch finding bartender!

[u/iBeFloe]

This dude got away with it, tried to turn himself in, didn’t work, so he pushed to get attention to get charged?? Whyyyyyy.

[u/just_some_guy65 → u/iBeFloe]

I got the impression at that point that he wanted the story to come out so he could tell the world how clever he was. Why was stopping, not saying a word and not admitting anything not an option?

The AMA on here tends to support my idea.

[u/RetardedSheep420 → u/just_some_guy65]

because then it would seem like he knows he's guilty of stealing money from the bank but he's also actively trying to hide and/or run away so he doesnt get caught.

think about it. a man who WANTS to confess his crime will probably get a lower sentence than someone who tries to run away.

[u/Knife7 → u/RetardedSheep420]

Yeah, he was going to get caught eventually. Might as well get what you want an then call it a day.

[u/papalonian → u/just_some_guy65]

Or, ya know, they felt genuine remorse and anxiety over what they did

[u/nastypanass → u/papalonian]

I can’t imagine feeling remorse after stealing from a bank. Those fuckers will charge poor people for overdrawing their own money and they don’t feel the slightest ting of guilt.

[u/papalonian → u/nastypanass]

I'd imagine with that much anxiety he'd be thinking about people losing their jobs or otherwise getting people in trouble.

I'm not saying he should've felt guilty for what he did, but I understand why he says he did, and I think it's kinda lame to immediately write someone with a bit of a conscience off as clout chasing

[u/Toosalty]

Ohh wowww that’s crazy..!!! ahem
*what was the trick..?

[u/SilentRidge → u/Toosalty]

Apparently ATM's in Australia used to be all kinds of fucked up. This guy noticed he could transfer money between accounts and do a withdrawal and get cash in hand, but then transfer some money back to the original account and the system would be like ok "I guess we are even now"? He got greedy and partied hard on the banks dime for months. Apparently for millions (good for him). Then he decided to turn himself in. I'm not sure I got it right. Banking is largely fantasy nonsense.

[u/Clay56 → u/SilentRidge]

Apparently the ATM would disconnect from the banks network between 1 and 3am and wouldn't register that he was transferring declined money

[u/redesckey → u/SilentRidge]

ATMs everywhere are all kinds of fucked up.

I'm a software engineer, and like 10 years ago I did a short term contract to help out with a project to update the UI for a banks ATMs. The UI was in internet explorer, running on windows xp. Not even joking. And that was standard at the time.

[u/ImNotASmartManBut → u/Toosalty]

I want to know too...Oh, I meant my friend want to know too.

I'm just a bystander passing the message on.

[u/michaelrohansmith]

This used to happen in the early days of ATMs because the banks back end systems did batch processing at night so you could withdraw more money than you had late at night. I funded a hitch-hiking trip around Tasmania in 1986 that way.,

[u/Taborask]

Even after reading his description, I still don’t understand how the glitch worked. Can somebody explain it?

[u/jezuschryzt → u/Taborask]

The glitch is that at a certain time of night he was able to transfer money from his credit card to his regular account beyond his credit limit as the ATMs were "offline" in some capacity and not validating transactions properly. He then had a day to freely spend the money from his regular account before the original transaction was reverted. He repeated the process every night so his account wouldn't fall into the negative

[u/muchvape2000 → u/Taborask]

My understanding after reading it several times is that the ATMs he was using went offline for an hour every night at 3am. When offline they can't read your account to see how much you have therefore it won't allow you to withdraw money. But for some reason it would still try to process transfers between two accounts, so he would transfer money from one account to another. The Atm couldn't actually check if the money he was transferring existed but stored that data anyways. Then he withdrew money from the account he transferred into, the atm allowed this because it now had a value associated with the account where previously it would've just been an error message. Now the atm did actually store that transfer, so that it would be processed when the machine came online again leading to his account being overdrawn the next morning. This meant that everytime he did this trick he would have to increase the amount he withdrew so he could pay off the debt from the last session.

[u/andreasbeer1981 → u/muchvape2000]

but wouldn't that mean that he accumulated a debt that grew day over day? It doesn't sound like making money from nothing, but rather spending today the debt of tomorrow. at some point the maximum debt limit would kick in and he'd be broke. I still don't get it.

[u/SketchesFromReddit → u/andreasbeer1981]

TL;DR: A querk of ATMs allowed him Dan to borrow and pay back money like a ponzi scheme.

​

It's 1am on Monday.

Dan is broke, but he wants to borrow one million dollars.

Dan has a savings account, which he can spend money from. It's empty.

Dan has a credit account, which can use to borrow money from the bank.

So Dan tries to use his credit account to borrow one million dollars from the bank and tranfer it to his savings account.

The credit account says "Lol. No. It's 1am, so the bank servers are down until 3am, I can't check whether you can borrow one million dollars, go away" but the savings account says "It's 1am, servers are down, I can't check whether you can borrow one million dollars, but I can loan you $1000 + 10% of the last balance I saw. Last I saw you had a zero dollar balance so I'm allowed to loan you up to $1000, here you go."

​

It's 3:01am Monday.

Dan checks his accounts:

- credit: $0 (he owes the bank nothing)

- savings: $1000

Dan withdrew $1000 without the bank noticing*!

(Spoiler alert: The bank will catch up with him in 26 hours)*

​

​

It's 1am Tuesday.

Dan checks whether he can withdraw money. The bank again says "No, you don't have a million dollars, but I can loan you $1000 plus 10%, so you can borrow $1100". So now the bank will let him borrow $1100 plus the money in his savings. That means Dan can withdraw $2100 of money he doesn't own! But Dan waits.

​

It's 3:01am on Tuesday.

Dan checks his accounts:

- credit: -$1000

- savings: $1000

​

And the bank says "Sorry, since you only have a $0 balance I'll only loan you $1000." So Dan takes the $1000 in his savings, and pays off the -$1000 debt in his credit acount.

​

Dan is back to:

- credit: $0

- savings: $0

​

But Dan realises the bank is 26 hours behind him, and for a small 2 hour window, he can borrow more money...

​

It's week 2.

Dan repeats the process just as he did the previous week, but this time he withdraws the $2100 at 1am on Tuesday when the bank allows him to.

On 3:01am on Tuesday, Dan checks his accounts:

- credit: -$1000**

- savings: $0

- cash in his hand: $2100

​

He immediately pays off the $1000 debt, and puts the remaining $1100 of the money in his account:

- credit: $0**

- savings: $1100

- cash in his hand: $0

​

* In 24 hours the bank with catch up again and show the missing -$1100 in the credit account. But for now he's $1100 ahead instead of just $1000 ahead!*

​

Dan realises that if he keeps the process up, each night he can borrow 10% more money than the previous night:

Night 1) $1000

Night 2) $1100

Night 3) $1210

...

Night 73) $1.1 million! (figures from here are rounded for simplification)

And the bank will never be the wiser. Their alarms bells only go off if he's not paying his debts, which he can always do.

​

It's night 73, 1am

Dan withdraws the $1.1M. Dan's a "millionaire" until the bank catches up in 26 hours when he owes $1.1M. He plans to put all the money in, finally paying off the debt.

But then he realises... He could spend the money instead. All $1.1M.

Well, if he did that, he couldn't pay the $1M dollars that's due in 2 hours, alarm bells would go off, he'd get caught. He could spend some of the $0.1M that he doesn't owe for 26 hours. Surely he could spend a least a single dollar?

If he spent the single dollar outside the system, he would never be able to get it back though. He would legitimately be removing it from the closed system that's perfectly balanced around $0, and owe it at the end. But there would never be an end if he keeps borrowing larger and larger amounts of money...

So Dan spends a dollar on a lolipop, and the amount is so inconsequential, that the bank still lets him borrow up $1.2M the next day!

It becomes clear he can spend anywhere between $1 to 9.99% of whatever he borrowed that each, and they'll keep lending him larger amounts of money. The bank will never know, as long as he keep getting bigger and bigger loans... But when he stops, they'll be able to tell exactly how much he owes them. Whether that's 1 lolipop, or 100 first class jet flights, he will owe that amount when he's caught.

[u/DanscoRed → u/Taborask]

Same. No idea what he was talking about.

[u/krukson → u/DanscoRed]

It's funny, cause neither did the court:

"I thought I was going to get totally reamed, but the court was weird because no one actually understood what I did—not the judge, not the prosecutor—so it was very odd," Saunders told VICE.

[u/just_some_guy65 → u/DanscoRed]

Same, I wonder if the real details are subject to an NDA?

[u/gil_bz → u/Taborask]

There is a nice video on this.

[u/i_fuckin_luv_it_mate]

I mean, I feel like a court of his peers should've ruled: "I fuckin luv it mate, not guilty, all charges dropped ya tricky bastard!"

[u/TurnandBurn_172 → u/i_fuckin_luv_it_mate]

In the US they can do that! It’s called Jury Nullification.

[u/AirierWitch1066 → u/TurnandBurn_172]

Yeah, but if you know about jury nullification they won’t let you be on the jury.

Frankly, it’s pretty fucked up!

[u/ThreatLevelBertie → u/AirierWitch1066]

The first rule of jury nullification club is you dont talk about jury nullification club

[u/Tehni → u/AirierWitch1066]

What can they do to you if you take the stand in your own case and tell the jury about jury nullification? Is that a crime?

[u/BelievesInGod → u/TurnandBurn_172]

They have it in Australia too, i think anywhere there is a court system you can have Jury Nullification

[u/constantKD6 → u/TurnandBurn_172]

That's the whole purpose of a jury.

[u/Vegan_Harvest]

If I were him somewhere in Australia there'd be over a million in change buried next to a tree.

[u/shrouple → u/Vegan_Harvest]

I'd bury mine next to the large T

[u/shpoopie2020 → u/Vegan_Harvest]

In the AMA that someone linked, he basically hinted that he'd done something like that, only that there are a ton of places to hide money that aren't under a tree. No one seemed to care in the end, I'd also be questioning the quoted amount haha.

[u/andreasbeer1981 → u/shpoopie2020]

probably the reason why he turned himself in. there were two options down the road: milk it until you get caught, or stash some, turn yourself in, do some time, pay the fine, and live honestly ever after plus the stash.

[u/thedsider]

I listened to a podcast interview with him. The bank were clueless, he had to more or less convince them of what he did. If he hadn't provided so much evidence he would likely have gotten away with it

[u/inthewildyeg → u/thedsider]

Why turn himself in? He could have taken millions. Put into some fund, and paid the bank back with the interest generated lmao

[u/Softballzhurt2]

In the early 90s, we worked out between midnight and 1am the ATM'S would go off-line. We would withdraw all our money just before midnight and then just after midnight do it all again. We would go to the bank on Monday and see the manager and plead our case. 9 times out of 10, he didn't charge us overdrawn fees.

[u/11shrimp → u/Softballzhurt2]

Ok. But you were still negative? Just with no over draft fees? This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

[u/starmartyr → u/11shrimp]

They were doing two transactions close together and claiming that they only did one transaction. The bank would think it was an error and refund them for the second transaction.

[u/katechobar → u/11shrimp]

ok because i’m sitting here like “am i just that stoned or is the math not mathing”

[u/SwitchAny5927 → u/Softballzhurt2]

one time i deposited a bunch of money and the balance came up a hundred short. i went into the bank told the manager and he gave me a hundred. as i was walking out i found the original missing hundred in my pocket.

[u/dumbo3k → u/SwitchAny5927]

For a bank, a missing hundred dollars is barely a rounding error.

[u/CondorPerplex]

Why the link to this awful ripoff of a website? One of the original interviews: https://www.vice.com/en/article/pa5kgg/this-australian-bartender-dan-saunders-found-an-atm-bank-glitch-hack-and-blew-16-million-dollars

[u/gkkiller → u/CondorPerplex]

A quick look at the OP's post history will tell you why, they're just farming clicks for a website they're presumably affiliated with.

[u/yParticle]

Further confirmation that white collar criminals don't go to prison unless they literally turn themselves in.

[u/BoskoMondaricci → u/yParticle]

RemindMe! Tuesday

[u/igcipd → u/BoskoMondaricci]

grabs popcorn

[u/RealNamek]

Honestly, the best way to spend this money would be to go to a Casino and play the martingale strategy. Just keep doubling your bet until you hit 2 million then quit. Tell the bank about the glitch, and give half the money back.

[u/RestlessKEITH]

There’s a podcast called The Glitch and it’s him telling the story. It’s a wild ride with an ending that I didn’t see coming.

[u/colacola79 → u/RestlessKEITH]

It’s a great podcast series as he is an excellent story teller.

[u/PJozi → u/RestlessKEITH]

https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a19834127/luke-milky-moore-money-glitch/?

Here's another one...

[u/dchobo]

What's wrong? Don't the federal reserve and central banks do that all day long? Printing money out of thin air?

[u/SwansonHOPS]

This post has been made already, literally word-for-word.

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/ujoonz/til_in_2011_a_29yearold_australian_bartender

[u/Opinions_R_Not_Facts → u/SwansonHOPS]

If you notice the upvotes you might understand that not everyone spends the same amount of time on Reddit to remember and or have seen a post from ten months ago.

Am I saying that reposts for fake internet points aren’t annoying, no.

Hopefully Reddit still kinda works like a democracy where upvotes of newly seen, (for the person,) things still matter. It’s like someone mentioning a movie they’ve never seen and you shit on them because you saw it a month earlier and can’t believe how behind they are.

[u/Easy-Plate8424]

Legend

[u/CTH2122]

The guy didn’t get caught until he went to the media people about it like what you mean they didn’t even notice that someone was spending large amounts of money

[u/Bigingreen]

As an Australian, I'm a little upset that he didn't find a way to buy property and land.

It would be worth way more now.

[u/dska22 → u/Bigingreen]

But i guess the bank would've seized that. You can't seize a trip.

[u/leftypolitichien]

Good for him

[u/meatymeatballs]

There's a full podcast series with Dan called 'The Glitch'. Defs worth a listen

[u/67Leobaby1]

What was that glitch I wonder?

[u/housebottle]

he's done a really poor job of explaining what the fuck the glitch was

[u/tallmantim]

If you like this sort of story, there is a great podcast narrated by Jim Jefferies (Aus comic who went viral for gun control skit). Milky is an aussie larrikin than discovers another way to get infinite money from the bank.

https://www.audible.com.au/pd/The-Outrageous-True-Story-of-Milky-Moore-Podcast/B0BB6C4CFG

[u/davtruss]

I would have blamed "Monopoly" - bank error in your favor.

[u/BloodSteyn]

Draw Chance Card.

Banke errs in your favour, Get $1.6M

[u/Pabus_Alt]

One year for stealing 1.8 million....

Like I agree with it, the crime had basically no victims, I'm just shocked the court was so lenient.

[u/Orc_]

Yes. If you have imagination and money, you’re able to help people live their wildest dreams. It’s a super addictive fun thing to do, especially when the money literally comes from “thin air.”

That's the dream right there, changing the lives of others, I honestly think I can probably make other happier than I can be happy myself with infinite money glitches

[u/fishbarrel_2016]

I worked at a bank when the same thing happened - some guy took money from an ATM but it wasn't deducted from his account.
He got caught because he emptied 2 ATMs several times over a few days, and the people responsible for refilling them noticed this was an unusual pattern so investigated.
I always thought he should have just taken a few hundred out every so often, a thousand here and there - if he ever got found out he could just say he never checked his balance and could reasonably say if he had known he would have taken more.
I suppose if it happened to you you'd expect it to be found out quickly so take as much as you can.

[u/truenorthsought]

Back in 2016 I was pretty broke, had borrowed a little money to get me by and I stopped at my bank ATM to deposit the check. It was late at night and I was trying to get it deposited before midnight hoping to cover any overdrafts coming out the next day.

The next morning I checked my balance on the app and had over $92,000.00 in my account! WTF?! I called the automated number and checked again thinking maybe the app was messed up. Yep, I had the same amount. Less than 8 hours before I had around 200.00 in my account.

I didn’t tell anyone, didn’t spend it, just waited to see what would happen. A week went by and no calls from the bank but I couldn’t handle the fear of what might happen if I spent it so I contacted the bank. Of course they took it but it was fun to feel rich for a few days.

[u/aWormhatForVermhat]

0% chance I’d have guilt enough to turn myself in like this guy did. I would have definitely moved overseas with my millions and started a new life.

[u/JoeDiBango]

Good luck collecting on that.

[u/Limp_Distribution]

Stick the money in another bank and see how much interest you can generate. Payback the money when found out. Not sure that would work but I wonder how much interest you could get off 1.6 million?

[u/planchetflaw → u/Limp_Distribution]

Would be ruled proceeds of crime in Australia. So that would be seized as well.