How secure are ATMs?

It is a Saturday, so the banks are closed. Your wallet has been cleaned dry by the week’s expenses and you need to buy small things that can be embarrassing to purchase through your credit card or may be found only in small stores that are not that sophisticated to accept "plastic money."

So, you need cold cash. Not that much, just enough to get you by through the weekend. In this modern day and age the solution to such an inconvenience is to reach out for your ATM card and go to the nearest machine, which are now conveniently found in many areas in the metro.

As you get into an ATM machine, you insert your card and start punching on those keys to tell the machine your preferred language of transaction, whether you are withdrawing cash from your current or savings account, your PIN number and the amount of money you wish to withdraw, etc.

After going through all the required instructed exercise you find the words, "This ATM machine can not dispense cash" on the screen of the ATM machine. That being so you try to retrieve your card, while mumbling to the machine, "If you were dry, why did you have to let me go through the whole futile exercise in the first place?"

Then this is when the real trouble starts. You cannot retrieve your card out of the machine. It is stuck inside. Timely, someone who’s to withdraw cash himself appears behind you and says that the same thing has happened to him before. But he says he was able to retrieve his card and the "Good Samaritan" offers to help you try to manipulate the card out and then asks you to go through the whole key punching exercise again, but to no avail. So, you leave and look forward to Monday to straighten out the whole incident with your bank and to request to have your "swallowed" ATM card back.

Monday comes and when you report the very inconvenient scenario to your bank you are met with a disastrous news that cash, a lot of cash, almost all of the cash, save for a few bucks, have been withdrawn from your ATM account. The withdrawals were made several times worth P5,000 and P10,000 in a period of two days until the account was almost bone dry.

The foregoing is not fiction. This happened to a BPI account holder who I know personally. And the bank seems to offer no relief to the aggrieved client.

The victim now has several questions regarding the security, or the lack of it that is being afforded BPI ATM account holders.

Why wasn’t there any prior notice on the screen that the machine was not working? In cases like these, there should be a default mechanism that automatically shuts off the machine, which would prevent anybody from even bothering to punch any of the machine’s keys.

How was it possible for anybody, who did not know the PIN of the accountholder, to be able to withdraw cash from the account?

Assuming that the victim inadvertently punched all the right keys to complete the first withdrawal while being helped to manipulate the card out of the machine, how were the succeeding withdrawals made possible without the PIN?

This case appears to be nothing else but the machine’s "security system’s failure" with the ATM account holder as the victim ending up holding the empty bag. The bag was cleaned of almost P83,000 because the BPI ATM Machine’s system failed to protect its client from such system’s failure. Will BPI answer for what appears to be nothing else but the system’s failure? Or will it just say to its victimized client, "So sorry, but what happened was just unfortunate and we will try harder next time."

Knowing the century-old track record of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, I find it unimaginable for this prestigious bank to just leave any of its clients by the wayside, especially in a case such as this.

But if, in the remotest possibility that it does, I shall be very sad to let you know.

Does a reservation fee guarantee selling price?

A reader from Mabalacat, Pampanga, Ms. Ella Villanueva wrote in to inquire, "Is a vehicle dealer allowed to increase their price even when a person has placed his reservation fee?"

If you asked me about its legality, I cannot answer you with certainty, as I am fortunately not a lawyer. However, if you ask me what’s the practice, I would say, yes.

Your payment of a reservation fee to the car dealer only assures you of being part of a list of buyers who would be given a unit when your turn in the line comes. It does not however tie down the dealer to a particular price.

It would be an entirely different case when you pay the full amount in advance or even probably a down payment and given an invoice reflecting the buying price of the car. That’s a case where the contract to sell is signed, sealed and delivered.

But to be sure I shall gladly forward your inquiry to the carmaker involved for them to explain to you first hand.

Thanks for writing and I hope you get your vehicle soon enough as I understand that you have sold the car that your new vehicle is suppose to replace.

Exclusive Cigar Club has new president

I missed a big event of the US Embassy Cigar Club last week as I was in an exclusive three-day journalists‚ workshop in Boracay. The workshop was very successful but then that’s another story, which I shall dwell on next week.

Last Friday, Sept. 6 the newly installed club president Harry Barker took his oath formally taking over from former president and club founder US Consul Sonny Busa, who’s now serving in his new assignment in Ethiopia.

During the affair, the Century Park Hotel’s Cellar Pub, the venue of the event that is presently run by wine tycoon Bobby Joseph (nice to see you well and back again, Bobby), was also formally designated as the official home of the elitist organization.

On hand to make sure all club members were enjoying the usual flowing wine and abundant good food and puffing away their favorite cigar brands was Century Park Hotel’s indefatigable and very friendly general manager, Bobby Carpio, who was as usual nattily dressed for the affair.

Festival De La Cocina Mexicana

For the second straight year, the Café Al Fresco of the Hyatt Regency Manila is featuring the exciting, scintillating cuisine of Mexico.

This promises to be, not only a gastronomic feast but a sensual one as well, colorful as only the fiery Mexicanos can prepare them. Most of us are familiar with Tex-Mex dishes which actually evolved from the influences of other cultures, hence do not count as "authentic Mexican."

This year, they are focusing on Mayan food, highlighting the cuisine of Merida, capital of the Yucatan Peninsula, homeland of famous chef Agustin Rojas. Chef Rojas himself flew over to personally concoct his favorite dishes. Did you know that Mayans subsisted mainly on fish and wild game, and corn, squash and beans were a staple in their diets? So expect to see a lot of frijol (beans) and see what magic Chef Agustin can do with the lowly beans. And expect to see a lot of pescados and mariscos, cochinita pilbil (slow roasted pork in banana leaves with the famous achiote sauce), pollo pilbil and an assortment of chiles and salsas, all with the distinct flavor of Yucata. And don’t forget the tortillas please. It’s on going up to tomorrow, Sunday, Sept. 15.

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