14 DAY TRIAL // Local news agencies in Saudi Arabia report that four teenagers were arrested this week for stealing over $530,000 from ATMs by using game cards bought from a local mall.
The alleged thieves accidentaly discovered a strange flaw in certain ATMs where by inserting a particular type of game card they could withdraw the same amount of money as the last person who used the machine.
The funds were being withdrawn from the bank's own assets, not from customer accounts, and the trick apparently only worked on older ATM models.
According to the Saudi Gazette, the juvenile thieves began stealing money through this method about two years ago by initially making cash-outs of 800 Saudi riyals (around $200).
However, as time passed by, they became more aggressive and the bank was eventually alerted when two $24,000 and $19,000 withdrawals were made simultaneously.
According to the authorities, the teenagers stole over SR 2 million during the past two years from three separate ATMs located at at different bank offices in Taif.
One of them was initially identified and captured with the help of security cameras and lead police to the rest of the gang.
Authorities claim the four ATM thieves used part of the stolen money to buy two Toyota Camry, two Lexus and one Datsun, three of which were later sold.
The case was handled by the Criminal Investigation Department in Taif, which gave no technical details about how it was possible for game cards to be used on ATMs.
In some cases the term game card can refer to cards that provide time-limited access to online games or unlock virtual goods, while in others they can mean pre-paid cards used instead of coins at new arcade game machines.
The second possibility is more likely in this case, because such debit cards are designed for swiping and have magnetic stripes. It's possible that for some hard to explain reason, the ATMs detected them as service cards of sorts.