A number of social media articles with tens of thousands of views assert that you may stop ATM PIN theft by hitting the “cancel” button twice after making a cash withdrawal from an automated teller machine (ATM).
The assertion is false.
Declare
On November 6, a user posted on Instagram, “Remember to press the ‘cancel’ (X) button twice before you leave the ATM after taking out cash. If you don’t, cyber attackers could hack your [bank] account.”
To date, the post has received over 20,000 likes and over 42,000 shares.
Reality
Information technology specialists affirm that hitting the “cancel” button twice at an ATM after completing a transaction will not shield against cyberattacks or ATM fraud.
Under the condition of anonymity, an IT specialist at Bank Alfalah in Karachi told Geo Fact Check that the main purpose of the “cancel” button is to end the current transaction and get the ATM ready for the subsequent user interaction.
“It is intended to automatically close the transaction once it is finished and concluded, so users do not need to press the cancel button again after completing a transaction,” he said in an email.
The Federal Investigation Agency’s former regional coordinator for cybercrime, Khawaja Mohammad Ali, referred to the internet assertions as a “hoax” that had to be “ignored.”
According to Ali, a bank notifies its clients via the appropriate channels if it discovers any “malicious system activity.”
The top spokesperson for Habib Bank Limited, Ali Habib, dismissed the internet assertions as “false” as well.
