Funny Foto #33

By Michael Seese

This one is not so much ha-ha funny as it is amusing to me.

One of the daily e-newsletters that I receive comes from the ABA which, in this case, is the American Bankers' Association.

Wednesday, as I paged down, I saw this:

I thought, Hey, that looks like Chagrin Falls, which is where I live. Only it's not quite right.

You see, if you were walking from our house and through town, the buildings on Main Street are on your left, while those on South Franklin are on the right. And, the last building on South Franklin doesn't look like the last building shown above. But that building does look like the Key Bank, which is on the opposite...

Hey!

I clicked on the link, and saw the full image. 













If you look at the way the cars are parked and driving, either this is England, or a flopped picture.

It is flopped. And it is Chagrin Falls.

More Job Humor

By Michael Seese

As I've mentioned in previous posts, sometimes I find a lot of humor in my work as an infosec and privacy pro.

For example, a few days ago I received my copy of the "ABA Bank Risk News." (In this case, ABA stands for American Bankers' Association.) Under the header of "Bank Robbery Roundup" were the following headlines.

FBI and area police seek information leading to arrest of 'bearded bandit'.
'AK-47 Bandit' who shot Chino officer tied to three bank robberies..
Fresno's 'Smelly Bandit' pleads no contest in bank robberies.. 
'Baseball Babe Bandit' sought in bank heists.
‘Bucket List Bandit’ robs 4th bank.
Police: Female bandit caught after robbing 4th bank.
‘Bad hair bandit’ faces 21 bank robbery charges.
‘Ball Cap Bandit’, another person arrested for Germantown bank robbery.
‘Wicker Park Bandit’ pleads guilty to bank robberies.

A few of these merited further investigation, and then comment.

For example, in the "Baseball Babe" story was the passage, "During the incidents, the woman hands the teller a demand note and threatens the bank employees. After receiving money, she has been seen leaving on a bicycle, officials said."

On a bicycle? And they can't catch her? 


Or consider the "Bucket List Bandit." "Whinham said a man walked into a Wells Fargo branch July 6 and had a note ordering the teller not to mess with him and to hand over a specific amount of money. The note also said he had just four months to live. The man's claim that he's dying hasn't been confirmed by police."

What is wrong with the police in Roy, Utah that they can't tell whether a man that they haven't caught yet is lying about a terminal condition?


Finally, there is the "Bad Hair Bandit." The picture does show very bad hair. (It's a wig, though.) What intrigued me were the opening two paragraphs: "A registered nurse suspected in a string of multi-state bank robberies in 2011 was arraigned on 21 counts of robbery counts in Sacramento federal court Friday. Cynthia Lynn Van Holland, 48, described by prosecutors as a transient from Washington and Idaho, was caught on Interstate 80 minutes after a bank hold-up in Auburn last August."


Whoever heard of a transient registered nurse?

This stuff is almost as good as the "stupid robber" stories...you know, the ones where a guy hands the teller a note written on the back of an appointment reminder from his parole officer. 

Feel free to share any dumb criminal stories you've heard.

My Other Self

I generally use this space to talk about writing. But as many of you know, my day job is as an infosec pro for a major bank. Occasionally, I come across something interesting in the world of cyber- (or not cyber-) crime.

Here is an example of the latter. The italics are mine.

ABA-Backed Bill Introduced to Repeal Outdated ATM Disclosure
House Financial Services Committee members Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) and David Scott (D-Ga.) on Tuesday introduced an ABA-supported bill (H.R. 4367) that would protect banks from frivolous lawsuits by repealing the outdated requirement that a placard must be attached to ATMs stating that a fee may be charged.

The placard disclosure is duplicative because the actual fee also appears on the ATM video monitor before the transaction is completed. But if the placard isn’t attached, Regulation E (Electronic Funds Transfer Act) permits successful class-action plaintiffs to recover the lesser of $500,000 or 1 percent of the ATM operator's net worth plus attorneys’ fees and costs.

As a result, some people have removed placards, photographed ATMs without them and filed lawsuits. In a February letter, ABA and six other trade groups asked the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees to pass a bill repealing the placard requirement because such lawsuits were growing precipitously and could reduce both the number of ATMs and consumer convenience.

While I don't condone criminal activity--in fact, it's part of my job to prevent it--I have to admit that there is a certain amount of clever malfeasance behind this scam.