In 2011, a 29-year-old Australian bartender found an ATM glitch that allowed him to withdraw cash way beyond his balance. Over 5 months, he spent $1.6 million of the bank’s money on parties, private jets, vacations abroad, and even paid off his friends’ university fees.
After a night out partying with friends, Saunders attempted to make transfers between his savings account and credit card at an ATM.
But Saunders quickly realized that the machine was mistakenly letting him transfer more money than he actually had in his account.
In the early hours of the morning, the ATM machines went offline, disconnecting from the bank. Saunders saw there was a delay between the withdrawal and bank's system documenting the transaction — so long as he transferred money between accounts during the ATM's offline hours, he could withdraw large sums of cash without the accounts appearing overdrawn.
For the next five months, Saunders kept up the scam and spent a total of $1.6 million on wild parties, luxurious hotels, fancy dinners, and sometimes giving money to friends for college tuition.
Source: businessinsider.com
