ATM fraud is a big topic in Japan, with police in many areas launching big publicity campaigns. Amongst the main targets are the elderly, often telephoned by perpetrators claiming to be relatives and in need of some emergency funds.
ATMs in Japan are very convenient, allowing ordinary consumers to perform transfers and many other functions. Unfortunately, this convenience comes with a side-effect: people can be tricked into sending their funds to the wrong account by pressing a few buttons. It is estimated that in the first three months of 2008 alone there were 5,618 incidents resulting in a loss of 78 billion yen.
Now police and banks in Aichi have come up with an innovation to combat these problem. Since many victims are told instructions and the account details directly over the phone as they put them into the machine, ATMs will now no longer allow consumers to complete the transaction until they hang up. A metallic film around the ATM will block access if it detects mobile phone waves. Essentially ATMs will become out of range for mobiles. Not only might this prevent the criminals from relating their information, it also introduces a break for the consumer to think carefully about the transaction they are about to make.
It is still just in a trial period but police hope to introduce the system nation-wide.
William is one of the editors of JapanTrends.com and a Project Manager at 
It’s a nice idea, but ATM machines tend to be placed in high traffic areas. What happens if someone is waiting in the queue behind you, talking on their phone, while you’re trying to carry out your own transaction? What happens if someone walks past you, or your own mobile rings while you’re transferring money? The designer obviously hasn’t thought much about these things.
Also, lots of people do banking online nowadays, from their own home or office computers… so the usefulness of these ATMs is diminishing. In the UK, most ATMs that do money transfers are located inside banks. The ones on the street only issue cash, statements and allow you to top-up your mobile phone credit. This would be a much better solution to the problem.