Microwaves Screwing With ATMs, Real life story? Run idea? You decide. Options

[Rayzorblades]

Hey all, a buddy and I were recently talking about those devices purported to use microwaves to give you free soda from soda machines and credits in digital slot machines.

Anyway, he went on to tell me about a guy who was using similar tech to make bank machines spit out cash. Firstly, is such a thing possible? And secondly would it fit in good as a run or do you think it's too simple or short?

[Sir_Psycho]

Why would anyone hire the runners to rob an atm, if they can go point their device at it themselves? More likely the runners are hired by a corporate Johnson who wants this activity stopped. For example, in Emergence there's a run where the characters are hired by a casino to find out why a particular customer just keeps winning.

[hyzmarca]

That's absurd. You can't get free soda using microwaves.

You can, however, get free soda (and money) by enabling the debug menu, which is very easy to do if you know how and if the machine has one (just google soda machine hacking). ATMs have similar debug menus, but they tend to be much more secure. The easiest way to get money from an ATM is to install a pass-through card reader over the card slot and a small camera looking onto the keypad. At an outdoor machine far away from its bank, you can probably do this without anyone noticing for a while. It helps to know the refill schedule so you can remove your stuff before someone form the bank notices it. If you do it right, you'll have plenty of card numbers and pin numbers and no one will be the wiser. You can then encode the card numbers on blank cards and use the matching PIN numbers to extract money from the machine.

[Rayzorblades]

http://www.plans-kits.com/kits.html This page has a few of said devices, though I misunderstood the alleged workings, EMP not microwaves.

[hobgoblin]

so the supposed trick is to induce a current in the release circuit and hope it triggers...

[nezumi]

Seems like it would be throwing darts blindly, hoping one opens the window.

I think it more likely to trip (or fry) some random bit of circuitry, and when the bank comes to repair it, they'll review the camera footage to find out what happened. Really, hyzmarca's answer is a good deal more sensible.

(Also note that a microwave gun has basically the same effect as an EMP gun, and strictly speaking they are the same (microwaves being EM). This is why you don't put pots in the microwave, or at least you only do it once. I read somewhere that police are looking at putting such devices on their cars so during pursuits they can 'shoot' the other car and fry its circuitry.)