Author Topic: ATM owners?  (Read 3464 times)

NYExpat

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 34
ATM owners?
« on: July 31, 2015, 02:58:39 PM »
I'm curious if there any ATM owners/ operators out there? If you are the one that collects the fee from the ATM, have you ever opened a checking account that rebates ATM fees and in essence paid yourself to take cash out the ATM? If you had friends in on it, it could be an easy way to make another $100 a month, or just not worth it?

AZDude

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1296
Re: ATM owners?
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2015, 03:50:01 PM »
Sounds like fraud to me...

Cathy

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1044
Re: ATM owners?
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2015, 09:09:32 PM »
AZDude appears to have a keen eye for identifying transparently fraudulent schemes.

Although no exposition is really required, I will briefly explain why the OP's proposed scheme is without a doubt fraudulent. Let's say you are in the business of operating ATMs and your ATMs charge $10 per transaction. Let's further say that you have a checking account with Schwab, which promises to rebate all third-party ATM fees. The basis of OP's scheme is that you use your Schwab card at ATMs that you own and repeatedly pay the $10 fee. You then receive a rebate in full from Schwab. Meanwhile, you still have the money that you paid to the ATM because you actually paid it to yourself.

The reason this is fraudulent is that Schwab's promise is to rebate fees that you actually paid. In this fraudulent scheme, you never actually paid any ATM fee, you just moved the money from one pocket to another, and then demanded that Schwab "rebate" you a fee that you never paid. The ATM transactions are nothing but a sham designed to defraud Schwab.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2015, 09:13:17 PM by Cathy »

firewalker

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 306
Re: ATM owners?
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2015, 09:52:16 PM »
Hmm. A sham that defrauds Schwab, eh? Anyone know if you can set up Schwab sham churning? (say THAT ten times fast!)

Sofa King

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 381
Re: ATM owners?
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2015, 09:59:52 PM »
A friend of mine has around 15-20 ATM's in Florida in all kinds of different places. He goes and fills them and has another person who also helps fill them all at least once a week. He makes in ATM fee's between $2,000-$3,000 per month.  He has a program on his computer that in real time shows how much he is making as the ATM's are being used.  I found it to be very interesting.

johnny847

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3188
    • My Blog
Re: ATM owners?
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2015, 10:55:33 PM »
Hmm. A sham that defrauds Schwab, eh? Anyone know if you can set up Schwab sham churning? (say THAT ten times fast!)

If you link an external account from Schwab, they do two test deposits (as does virtually any other bank). But Schwab, unlike most banks, doesn't take back those test deposits.
I've actually made $11.24 from this.
Now obviously it is not worth your time to set up new bank accounts just to get your free 2x transactions under $1. But I churn bank accounts for signup bonuses, and when I do I often need to transfer funds around, so I end up needing to link it to Schwab anyways.