STRATEGIC PARTNERS
May 4, 2003
NEWMARKET, New Zealand -- Customers flocked to an ANZ ATM in Newmarket after word spread that the machine was dispensing $50 notes instead of $20s.
According to a report in the New Zealand Herald, cardholders who entered the maximum daily withdrawal of $800 were able to get $2,000 -- 40 $50 notes instead of the same number of $20s -- but their statements reflected the $800 amount.
Embarrassed ANZ Bank executives admitted that "several tens of thousands of dollars" was withdrawn, but would not give the exact amount or how many people collected it.
ANZ spokeswoman Rita Zonius was vague about when it happened, saying it was for several hours on a Saturday in April. The ATMs had recently been changed to dispense both $50 notes and $20s. Zonius said someone had loaded $50s in the $20 cassette.
In a similar incident, an ATM in the UK's Wearside started churning out £20 notes instead of tenners on May 3, according to a report in the (Newcastle) Evening Chronicle.
Crowds flocked to the Alliance & Leicester ATM in Pallion, Sunderland, with some withdrawing the maximum allowed in one transaction and then going to the back of the queue to await another turn, according to the Evening Chronicle.
After about three hours, police were called and the machine was shut down.
An Alliance & Leicester spokeswoman said computer records would enable the bank to trace who was overpaid and by how much. "However, we think we can rely upon people's basic honesty and trust them to come back with the money," she said.
She declined to say how much had been overpaid. Like the New Zealand incident, cash cassettes had apparently been loaded incorrectly.
