News

ATM urban legends rare, wacky

June 29, 2004

Urban legends about ATMs are just about as rare as razor blades in Halloween apples.

"There's not a lot of lore at the moment about ATMs. It tends to indicate people don't fear this particular aspect of technology," said Barbara Mikkelson, an urban legend enthusiast who, along with her husband, David, maintains an exhaustive collection of the sometimes twisted, never-quite-true tales at snopes.com.

For most people, she added, ATMs are "a normal and natural part of the banking landscape."

While new technology often generates urban legends because of people's fear of the new and unknown, ATMs managed to emerge relatively unscathed.

"When ATMs first came out, you didn't see stories about how people had been electrocuted using them or how it had sucked all of the money out of their account," Mikkelson said.

Of course, there are exceptions. Perhaps the best-known ATM urban legend concerns an unnamed customer who died after licking a deposit envelope at an ATM. Traces of cyanide were then supposedly found in the person's mouth and digestive system. When police investigated, goes the legend, they traced the lethal poison to the ATM envelope and found six more tainted envelopes at other machines in the area.

A message detailing the alleged incident and warning recipients to beware of deposit envelopes at ATMs began circulating on the Internet in June 1999, according to snopes.com. With e-mail, these types of cautionary tales spread quickly.

"Before, you'd whisper it over the back fence or, if you were very ambitious, type it up and pin it up on a bulletin board at church," Mikkelson said. "Nowadays, you get these things in your inbox and you don't even have to put them in your own words. You can just forward them to 20 of your best buddies in seconds."

The story originated in Canada, a country whose residents are among the world's heaviest ATM users. The original version was signed by Kimberly Clarkson of the Toronto Department of Health's crime unit.

But a communications department spokesperson said, "We have no such person on staff. The public health department doesn't have a crime unit. There is no death to our knowledge that occurred. If somebody had died of cyanide poisoning, we would have heard about this."

In July 1999, the original text was altered to indicate the poisoning had taken place at a Bank of America ATM and that the letter writer had heard about it "at 3:45 p.m. on KDIA radio station."

"The poison ATM envelope e-mail has been circulating for more than a year and is completely false. It has been attributed to various banks around the country at different times," said a Bank of America spokesperson. "From our research, no one has been harmed and there have not been any incidents of envelope poisoning. ATMs are safe to use and customers should continue to use them without worry."

While Mikkelson said that many legends are popular because "they confirm a deeply held world view" such as the uncaring nature of big business, she doesn't think that's the case with this particular scary story. Rather, it's part of a series of tales concerning dangers lurking on gas pump handles, payphones, public toilets, "anywhere an average person might reach out without thinking."

The story continues to circulate via e-mail. This editor recently received a note from an employee of Columbia Bank wondering if it was true.

"The Internet breeds its own doppelgangers," Mikkelson said. "It may be hard to realize it was written two years ago."

Also, she added, "truth doesn't get around as quickly as these completely fascinating stories." Those who mention it to friends may feel "a bit of a sense of shame" for their role in perpetuating it. "You sent out this scary warning to 20 of your best buddies and you find out it's a hoax. So do you swallow your pride or quietly hope nobody mentions it again?"

Another high-voltage rumor

Another less ominous ATM-related urban legend is an oddball belief that eelskin wallets destroy ATM cards because eelskin supposedly retains a certain electromagnetic property that erases the magetic strips on plastic cards.

Mikkelson thinks this one, which has been circulating since about 1986, is popular because "it sounds like one of those 'gosh, golly, gee' facts we're all so fond of."

Unlike the cyanide story, this tale contains a whiff of truth. According to snopes.com, some eels are capable of producing strong electric impulses. However, eels' organs for transmitting these charges do not reside in their skin -- not to mention the fact that eelskin accessories aren't fashioned out of electric eels.

Mikkelson said the real culprit is often the magnetic clasp found on many eelskin wallets. Also, eelskin is much thinner than cowhide, which may mean magnetic strips of cards carried in an eelskin wallet have a greater chance of influencing each other.

She advises eelskin aficionados to select a wallet that lacks a magnetic clasp and, out of respect for the thinness of the leather, to try to keep mag strips from facing each other.