HSBC Keeps Vandalised ATM in Use Sunday, 10 October, 2010 19:49
What does it take to get a bank to take security seriously? Over the best part of 2010 I have given up with HSBC at Paddington in West London (UK).
Paddington Station, is a major railway terminus with hi-speed trains running to/from Wales, the West Country, as well as Oxford and Reading. It is also the main London entry station for the Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect services to/from the Heathrow Airport. All these services mean that thousands of passengers pass through it every hour of nearly every day. These latter are all potential users of the ATMs at the Station.
In what is called The Lawn area on the councourse, where the main shops are situated, there are predictably at least five ATM machines. One belongs to HSBC. It is mounted in a free-standing wooden box - so it is really a 'hole in a box' ATM. However the sides of the front mounting are frequently prised open allowing anyone access to the inards of the box to draw obscene grafiti inside or worse. Indeed when so vandalised it is sometimes possible to pull the whole ATM on rollers out of its box. This is a gift to anyone wanting to compromise the integrity of the ATM's security. Paddington has CCTV in the area, however - as usual - this does not appear to be a deterrent. This ATM's security is regularly compromised by vandals or others more sinister intentions and HSBC has done/is doing nothing about it..
I pass through Paddington quite frequently and sometimes check to see if anything has been done about this ATM. If I see anything amiss I try and tell a member of Network Rail or the British Transport Police who patrol the Station. However since this situation has been going on for so long no-one now is really interested any more. Certainly HSBC is not interested.
Astonishingly when I point out to someone using this ATM that the integrity of the ATM has been clearly compromised they usually give me a look which means 'mind your own business, don't bother me' to 'thanks, I guess I'll now have to use another one.'
Risks: Its risky enough using ATMs in London, but HSBC obviously doesn't even care when one of its ATMs is regularly vandalised and its security compromised.