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Chinese programmer used a loophole to withdraw $1 million from ATMs

Sometimes you come across a story so bizarre not even Hollywood could dream it up.

The “star” of the story is Qin Qisheng, a former manager at Huaxia Bank’s technology department. The manager reportedly discovered a loophole in the bank’s operating system.

That flaw allowed folks to make a withdrawal from a Huaxia ATM at around midnight and not have the withdrawal recorded. This meant that you could essentially withdraw more money than you had.

Before you book a ticket to China, the loophole has already been fixed.

We also need to point out that Qisheng inserted a number of scripts into the bank’s system which stopped alerts from being triggered.

All in all, Qisheng was able to make withdrawals of between 5 000 and 20 000 yuan for more than a year amassing seven million yuan.

When he was eventually caught, Qisheng said that he was simply testing the bank’s internal security and that the money was in his account ready to be returned to his employers.

The bank bought that story, forgave him and asked authorities to drop the charges.

It also appears as if Qisheng told the bank that he wouldn’t have been believed if he had told the bank about the loophole.

“Qin Qisheng said that the matter was complicated and involved lots of work … he believed the bank would not pay attention even if he reported it,” a Huaxia representative said.

Authorities however, did not buy this story and charged Qisheng with theft.

“On the one hand, [the bank] said that the accused’s behaviour was in violation of the rules. On the other hand he said that he could conduct relevant tests. This is self-contradictory,” the judge said according to a report by the South China Morning Post.

Despite filing an appeal, which failed, and returning all of the money he withdrew Qisheng now faces 10 and a half years in prison.

Like we said, bizarre story.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]

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