The last couple of days saw hundreds of bank?customers line up in long queues at ATMs in Ireland. The reason?
Well, it is because some customers at one of Ireland¡¯s largest banks happened to witness what seemed to be a?magical loophole?in the bank's IT system: They could withdraw more money than they even had in their accounts!
The?error?due to a "technical issue" at Bank of Ireland also cut some customers off from online banking services, while others found that it also allowed them to transfer or withdraw funds, even beyond the account limit (to?as high as 1,000 Euros, i.e., approx. Rs 90,000), without changing the reported balance.
It was an apparent windfall that brought long queues to some ATMs across Ireland and, in turn, prompted the authorities to monitor crowds, even as the bank warned people not to overdraw their accounts, as per a New York Times report.
There was an "unusual volume of activity" at several machines in Dublin and elsewhere, the Irish police, An Garda S¨ªoch¨¢na, said. The police added that officers were deployed to provide security near some of the machines for what they said were public safety and order reasons.
¡°We are aware that the technical issue meant some customers were able to withdraw or transfer funds above their normal limits,¡± the bank said in a statement on Wednesday apologising for the outages.
Services were restored overnight, but bank customers were warned that online banking would be slow as the bank caught up with processing payments, the bank¡¯s customer support representatives said on X (formerly known as Twitter).
And bank representatives were clear that any money transferred from accounts was not free to keep. Transfers and withdrawals made during the disruption would appear on accounts that day, the bank said in its statement, adding: ¡°We urge any customer who may find themselves in financial difficulty due to overdrawing on their account to contact us.¡±
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On Wednesday, customers flooded their social media accounts with angry messages, reporting that their balances had not been updated correctly or that their online banking services remained disrupted.
Some users said that they could not verify that monthly rent or mortgage payments had cleared, and others complained that they were scared to spend in case they accidentally went into overdraft or that they were having trouble reaching support services to discuss a repayment plan.
The technical issues meant that some customers were able to transfer large amounts ¡ª some reports put the figure at 1,000 euros, or about $1,092 ¡ª to an account with another bank without their Bank of Ireland balances recording the transaction, and then withdraw the amount in cash.
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