Banking Glitch Gives Student $9.9 million.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-03-06 09:42pm

Bank glitch gives student $9.9 million

PRINCETON, New Jersey (AP) --An online banking glitch gave a Princeton University student access to university accounts totaling $9.9 million when he tried to access a student publication's account.

Freshman Ira Leeds didn't take any money.

Leeds, financial manager for The Princeton Tory, was attempting to access the conservative magazine's account with PNC Bank on Friday when he accessed all 15 of the University's accounts, which totaled just over $9.9 million.

Finding out about it
It was his first time trying to access the account online.

"We buy a lot of paper and stamps and envelopes, sometimes pizza for meetings and so forth. It helped to have the online access so I could track the activity on our debit cards as they were being used," he said.

Leeds alerted PNC Bank officials that night and The Tory sent e-mails to university President Shirley Tilghman and Provost Amy Gutmann about the error.

It turned out that the magazine's online log-on number is identical to the university's, because it is the same as Princeton's federal taxpayer identification number.

Was the money accessible?
Bank spokesman Joe Whall wouldn't say whether Leeds or anyone at The Tory could have withdrawn funds from the university accounts if they had tried.

"The funds are absolutely safe. No transactions were made," he said.

Princeton officials were looking for answers from the bank.

"We're not happy," said spokeswoman Lauren Robinson-Brown. "The bank has notified us that they will immediately block all university accounts from being accessed via their Web product."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/0 ... index.html

Morning Star · Post by **Morning Star** » 2003-03-06 09:44pm

There is a God!

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-03-06 09:46pm

Kid's got character.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2003-03-06 09:47pm

Why doesn't this kind of thing ever happen to me?

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-03-06 09:48pm

Durran Korr wrote:Kid's got character.

I remember in LA where some security truck lost a few thousand dollars... Some poor guy picked it up, but returned all of it. The company gave him a few thousand to show their gratitude.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-03-06 10:10pm

WHAT?! Dammit! How come nothing like that ever happens to me?

Well, the kid's got a firm set of morals, at least.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-03-06 10:35pm

Darth Yoshi wrote:WHAT?! Dammit! How come nothing like that ever happens to me?

Well, the kid's got a firm set of morals, at least.

Morals, schmorals. He should have taken the money and acted like it never happened.

I believe it has happened with others, but I'm sure you're far more likely to become a millionaire by winning the lottery than you are from some banking glitch.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-03-06 10:37pm

-slap-

Take!

-slap-

The!

-slap-

Money!

-slap-

You

-slap-

FREAK!

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2003-03-06 11:11pm

Darth Yoshi wrote:WHAT?! Dammit! How come nothing like that ever happens to me?

Well, the kid's got a firm set of morals, at least.

Probably also something of a pragmatist. The university would have noticed that they were missing money and be able to track the transaction. Then the student gets arrested for theft.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-03-06 11:25pm

Exonerate wrote:
Durran Korr wrote:Kid's got character.
I remember in LA where some security truck lost a few thousand dollars... Some poor guy picked it up, but returned all of it. The company gave him a few thousand to show their gratitude.

I wonder if this kid gets a reward...

ben · Post by **ben** » 2003-03-06 11:30pm

All I'm gonna say is that the Bank and Princeton got lucky that the kid has got morals or is a pragmatist. I can imagine that instead of this guy that another person with less morals or is stupider getting access to the accounts.

ArmorPierce · Post by **ArmorPierce** » 2003-03-07 12:01am

The best reward is the satisfaction of doing something right....

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-03-07 12:09am

Oi, damn lucky bank.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-03-07 12:13am

There is a high chance he would have gotten caught, I would not have taken the money cause you would end up in jail.

ArmorPierce · Post by **ArmorPierce** » 2003-03-07 12:33am

You could have pleaded ignorance.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-03-07 12:36am

Kind of worrying that glitches of that magnitude can happen. Though infrequently at least.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2003-03-07 12:37am

But never to me, so I don't have to worry about it.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-03-07 12:37am

ArmorPierce wrote:You could have pleaded ignorance.

Ignorance of what? I guess you could get away with a few hundred bucks and say you never noticed the balance was in the millions, but I doubt it.

I would not try to claim it was not me, since there would be logs of the transactions.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-03-07 09:07am

Screw the money, I prefer to work for mine. Getting it for free gives you a taste of a forbidden fruit that's hell hard to let go of.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-03-07 12:05pm

The Princeton Tory! I know those guys! And yeah, if he'd withdrawn the money, he would have been caught and gone to jail.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-03-07 12:09pm

ArmorPierce wrote:The best reward is the satisfaction of doing something right....

I'll second that. My hat's off to that kid.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-03-07 08:41pm

9.9 Mil, how many kegs would that be?

ben · Post by **ben** » 2003-03-07 09:30pm

A good sized swimming pool at least. Not a bad way to drown though.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-03-07 09:52pm

How much does 1 keg set you back?