Interesting thing about Japan, is the complete acceptance of people wearing surgical masks in public (it's considered to be polite if you are ill). Makes it a lot harder to identify people from video surveillance.
14000 transactions at 1400 ATMs in 2 hours?! Think about the logistics. That's 120 transactions per minute. And 1600 cards. Either an army of coordinated people, in itself highly risky as it vastly increases the likelihood of someone grassing on the group, or fewer people all sitting at the same ATMs drawing for 2 hours.... difficult not to get noticed. If they really pulled this off it will be the most well organized organized crime ever.
Would the south african bank be held accountable for this? or can they get away with this as the cards are fake/stolen ?<p>The article makes it seem as if Banks of the ATMs are the ones who lost the money.<p>I'm also a bit surprised the criminals carried their operation in Japan, It would have been easier in a more messy place e.g India / Africa ?
Interestingly this is not the first time it happens. 3 years ago:
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/nyregion/eight-charged-in-45-million-global-cyber-bank-thefts.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/nyregion/eight-charged-in-...</a>
Can a mod change the title to use the amt listed in the first paragraph?<p>Current title: 120M stolen from 1,400 convenience store ATMs across Japan in 2 hours<p>First paragraph of article:<p>>TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A total of 1.4 billion yen ($12.7 million) in cash has been stolen from some 1,400 automated teller machines in convenience stores across Japan in the space of two hours earlier this month, investigative sources said Sunday.<p>Suggested title: $12.7 million stolen from 1,400 convenience store ATMs across Japan in 2 hours
100 people, 4 hours, 13 million dollars. Set in the "mystical" and "lcd bright" Japan. Sounds like the next George Clooney movie. Ocean's 100? :)
Amateur hour.<p>If you want to rob a bunch of ATMs and get away with it, try keeping your vulnerable window longer than 2 hours...<p>I mean, it's going to be pretty straightforward to gather a bunch of footage and see what happened those 2 hours. These guys will get busted within the next few days basically guaranteed.