Jul -- News: $23,148,855,308,184,500 for cigarettes

OoBurns
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Posted on 07-17-09 02:58:02 AM

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That would be quite a surprise to open a bill and see that there.

I found this hypothesis as to how it could have happened. It's pure speculation of course, but interesting nonetheless.

What is interesting is that the amount charged actually reveals the type of programming error that caused the problem. 23,148,855,308,184,500.00 * 100 (I'm guessing this is how the number is actually stored) is 2314885530818450000. Convert 2314885530818450000 to hexadecimal, and you end up with 20 20 20 20 20 20 12 50. Most C/C++ programmers see the error now ... hex 20 is a space. So spaces were stuffed into a field where binary zero should have been.

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Hiryuu

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Posted on 07-17-09 11:21:54 AM

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That theory stated, that's what I kinda figured. I figured that number had to mean something outside of something random.

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Lyskar
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Posted on 07-18-09 05:51:09 PM

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You'd think they would have better error checking.

But then again, after the tales of how ATMs in different regions were desynced and, for some reason, three regions met in one place, and that somebody stole thousands of dollars based on this... well...

I can't say I'm surprised.

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Posted on 07-19-09 06:30:17 AM

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I know they tax cigarettes like crazy in some areas, but...

But then again, after the tales of how ATMs in different regions were desynced and, for some reason, three regions met in one place, and that somebody stole thousands of dollars based on this... well...

I can't say I'm surprised.

(Need to sidetrack this now.)

Eh?

Reminds me of a scenario my friend had at work on Thursday. Someone managed to somehow override the daily $400 ATM limit. He (either someone committing first party fraud or a fraudster) took out $380 (+ $3 service fee), then somehow reversed the transaction. So now he has $380 in his hand and the daily limit is back to zero.

Anyways, after a few hours of this the end result was $39,000 from the ATM, followed by the guy trying to make a payment onto the card for around $41,000. Credit limit's $2,000. Needless to say, the system put an automatic hold on that payment and the account's under investigation because DAMN.

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