The Magic Pixel

The story of how today I actually robbed a bank for $2,474.85 with a single keystroke, and then gave it back unnoticed, all within no more than five minutes. | …and how to do it again.

Today’s picture was not taken by me. Sadly, I didn’t get the chance to take a lot of photos today because I started out to run errands. This image was pilfered from Flickr and the account of a very capable photographer who goes by the name -sou-, who’s photostream you can find by clicking his name.

I also want to say that I’ve been told that some of the material that is posted on this blog has been causing certain members of my family some serious worries, and that these worries could be the cause of some serious health issues to said members of my family. So it is at this point that I’d like to run a short disclaimer

DISCLAIMER
Yes. I actually did rob a bank today. I was not caught, and I did give it all back anyway. I carried no equipment, no weapons, no forged documents, and not a single piece of electronic hardware with me. The entire maneuver went completely unnoticed, no one was even remotely close to being hurt or in any danger, and I am personally just fine, even the jitters and chills are gone. If you don’t want to hear about it. Stop reading now. If you want to know how it happened and can assure yourself that it won’t cause any undue distress then read on. If you’re a brainless adolescent reading a casual blog looking for more ways to cheat and beat the system and have a high capacity for mischief and think that after reading this you might actually try it: I also recommend you STOP READING NOW. I expect you to make the right choice.
END DISCLAIMER

A long time ago a good friend of mine and I were talking about robbing banks because we were young and fearless and we lived in Missouri which is a complete economic sinkhole with nearly no future outside cash crops and barn-building. Neither of which we were especially interested. My good friend was at the time and arguably still is a complete maniac who couldn’t see past the uzi’s in those days. He decided the most awesome way to do it would be to go in guns blazing and take it down hero style. While that may be the most awesome way I said it was also the method most likely to piss people off and get you caught and eventually executed. Probably violently.

I said if I were going to rob a bank I’d want to find the way that no one would even know they’d been robbed for at least three days, if at all. We had a good laugh then. And today I did it. I found that method, and I nailed it.

I started out today for two primary reasons. To pay the phone bill and to buy some pancake syrup because about a week ago I ran out of pancake syrup and started craving pancakes this morning. I also had to get some more contact solution. (You think it’s for cleaning contacts now don’t you? … Ha. Some people should just not read this blog…)

I amassed the few items I’d needed and went to the bank. I will not name this bank nor will I tell you where I was when I visited this bank. It was a bank. I did not go to the bank to rob it. I went to this bank to open a savings account.

Step 1: Go to a bank to open a savings account.

I told the attendant what I came for today and after a polite smile and a nod I was escorted to a private desk with an accounts specialist of some kind who began to review with me exactly what I needed. I said I wanted just a savings account. I was immediately offered a complete package, checking and savings accounts with automatic overdraft protection and a slightly higher interest rate in the savings account. I turned it down but after a little pressing and the lie that my savings account would glean no interest without a checking attached to it I conceded to opening a checking account with the minimum opening balance. The minimum opening balance today at this particular bank was 25 dollars.

I’m going to explain now that at this point, I still had no intention of robbing the bank. In fact the exact moment I saw how I could rob this bank was the split instant before I decided to rob it and was again only a second before the robbing took place. It was kind of impulsive honestly. I’m rarely impulsive.

My accounts attendant took my information, my license and a bank card from my other bank where I hold my primary checking. I assured her that I didn’t intend to spend any money from this account, just drop in a percentage of my check every month until I left the country. We had a pleasant chat about Australia during which at some point she turned the screen so I could see it and correctly explain the fact that I have three first names and to tell her what order they go in. She got it wrong anyway. I didn’t bother over it.

It was here that something incredibly happened. She set up both accounts and took the check I’d brought in with me, a measly paystub worth $537.15. I allowed her to put the minimum required amount in the checking she’d created and the rest to go in the savings. I watched her key in 25.00 for the first account and 512.15 for the second in the starting balances box.

She then gets up and tells me she’ll be back in a minute and is going into the back to get my checkbooks for each account which I had told her twice I would not be needed because, as I’d said “I will not be spending money through this account.” She leaves. I let my eyes wander for security cameras. This has also aways been kind of an automatic past-time of mine.

Either this bank has used holographic mirroring technology to hide their cameras or there WERE NO CAMERAS pointing at this little desk. The room we were in was private, which makes sense. The only view in or out of it was through the doorway that led to the short hallway and was lined with rows of highly frosted glass, again, for privacy, which makes sense. I had been thinking the entire time about how casual the entire affair in this room had been. How I didn’t ask for two accounts and was given two anyway. How I twice explained my name and it was keyed incorrectly anyway. Even the fact that I said I wanted no checks nor debit or credit cards from either account and she’d selected those boxes anyway. I was reminded of what I already knew. “Nothing here is concrete. It’s whatever they put in that computer. If only I could hack in there…” I thought. If only I could find that outside gate in and…

And I was sitting right across from the desk with the monitor still pointing at me. The information input page was still on the screen. I saw numbers. I blinked. I reached my hand across the desk, moved the mouse, clicked once, and hit one key on the keyboard. I moved the mouse away and waited patiently.

I was given plenty of time to sit and it was the greater part of my wait after I’d moved the mouse, giving me plenty of time to sit and think. I wasn’t that shaky. I knew exactly what I had just done. And I knew that nothing could ever pin me to what was about to happen. If anyone noticed… it would be cleared immediately as a harmless mistake on the part of the bank.

My attendant returned and handed me my checkbooks. I took them and asked which was for which as she sat down again at her chair. She explained, clicked the next button on the screen and my accounts were created. She immediately took me through online banking, opened the bank’s website and had me create a login. She slid the keyboard to me so I could create a password and I made sure that I could get my finger on the single keystroke I’d hit a minute ago. I logged and listened to her talk about online bill pay and direct deposit and checking accounts online and the tremendous waste of trees it was for people to get their statements mailed to them.

I listened. Waited. And got my receipt for the deposits I’d made in the new accounts. We shook hands and I stood up. I was now able to walk out of this bank completely free and no more noticeable than the plant on her desk. The only difference being that I walked into this bank to make a deposit of $537.15 and I’d be leaving with two accounts holding a combined sum of $3037.15.

I took a deep but subtle breath. Smiled as I was walking out and then stopped. “Hey wait.” I said. “Look at this.” I turned to my attendant again. “I think you forgot to put the period in here. This account says $2,500. Not $25.”

I showed her my receipt and the woman went so white I think I must have drained every drop of blood from her face. I received thanks ad naseum for catching her slip. She returned to accounts and corrected my little adjustment, and all was set right.

What happened? If not already obvious, here’s the explanation: When she was keying in my opening account balances she input two-five-dot-zero-zero for the opening balance of my checking. The minimum amount. The only thing I did, was delete the dot, that center period: the magic pixel. With one keystroke 25.00 became 2500 and the account balance increased by 100 times. When I was creating my online login I spelled my name wrong the first time purposely so I could get my finger on the delete key again. I think that was just my paranoia about fingerprints.

If I’d not called attention to the missing period… such a subtle little thing. I’d have successfully walked out of this bank with more than five times the amount I’d brought into it. However… I am no where near that desperate. Yet.

41 days…

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Tags: a bank, breach, city, freemonster, how, how-to, island, long, magic, monsterbox, new, NY, NYC, pixel, rob, robbery, security, technique, the, theif, to, trick, york

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