I recently received a forwarded email that has been circling the net for quite some time. The premise of the email is that if you are ever forced to withdraw money from an ATM by a thief you could enter your PIN in reverse order to summon the police. While such an idea has repeatedly been proposed, it hasn’t actually made its way into ATMs.

You can imagine the value of such a system. It would have marginal added cost, would allow transactions to continue, and offer the hope of rescue for victims. The main drawbacks often cited are that:

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