Official calls for ATM ‘duress code’
Published 10:20 pm Tuesday, September 1, 2009
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles city councilman Tuesday called Tuesday for the installation of a PIN “duress code” system at bank ATMs, which he said would cost banks about $25 a machine to install.
Greig Smith said a software manufacturer has developed such a system, in which an ATM customer can alert authorities to trouble by having an emergency code embedded in the card.
Under the system Smith described, a customer can enter the card’s PIN number in reverse order. The cash still would be disbursed, but police could be notified covertly that a robbery was in progress and where.
Smith said he made the proposal after the murder of Lily Burk, 17, who was killed in July after a man kidnapped her and forced her to attempt to get money from ATMs before he killed her.
