While a credit card with an unlimited balance may appear unrealistic, a malfunction in an ATM labeled as ‘infinite’ fulfilled one man’s most extravagant desires only to subsequently bring chaos into his life.
The tale of Australia’s ‘ATM Boy’ and the ‘enchanted card’ that transformed him into a millionaire has been recounted extensively on the internet – from discussions on Reddit and Quora to YouTube videos garnering millions of views.
In 2011, Dan Saunders, residing in northeast Victoria, stumbled upon a ‘loophole’ that enabled him to withdraw unlimited amounts of cash from an ATM.
Then a broke barman, Dan, 29, effectively ‘stole’ $1.6 million of the National Australian Bank’s reserves after he drunkenly stumbled upon a banking error that would allow him to fulfill all his wildest fantasies.
What makes the tale even more absurd was that Dan was so overcome with guilt after his spending spree that he tried to turn himself in many times between 2011 and 2014 – but no one appeared to take him seriously.
It wasn’t before he proclaimed he had lived like a ‘white Kanye West’ on the bank’s money during a national TV appearance that Dan was arrested.
Here, FEMAIL revisits the case of one of the world’s most bizarre banking failures – and the man who profited from it:
It begins in Wangaratta, three hours from, with a population of less than 30,000. Among its residents was Dan Saunders, a 29-year-old barman, whose greatest ambition was simply to have a good time.
While a credit card with no limit might seem like wishful thinking, an ‘infinite’ ATM glitch made one man’s wildest dreams come true – before turning his world upside down
Tthe story of Australia’s ‘ATM Boy’ Dan Saunders (above) and the ‘magic card’ that made him a millionaire has been retold countless times online – everywhere from Reddit threads and Quora pages, to YouTube videos with millions of likes
Then a broke barman, Dan, 29, effectively ‘stole’ $1.6 million of the National Australian Bank’s reserves after he drunkenly stumbled upon a banking error that would allow him to fulfill all his wildest fantasies
He wasn’t particularly driven; in 2011, he was working at a local pub making $700 (£340) a week, and trying to save up for a house with his long-time girlfriend.
He had a confessed weakness for a pint and a punt and when he wasn’t on the job, Dan Saunders could usually be found at the pub.
That’s where he was on the night his life changed forever in February 2011 – even if he didn’t know it at the time. At around midnight, Dan realised he wasn’t carrying enough cash for his beers, so he left the bar to go find an ATM.
When he tried to check the balance on his credit card, the National Australia Bank cash machine displayed an error message that read: ‘Balance unavailable at this time.’ So, he decided to transfer $200 from his credit card to his savings account in a moment of drunken desperation.
‘The ATM said “Transaction cancelled” and spat the card out,’ Dan recalled in an interview with The Australian. But when he checked the balance in his savings account, he was pleasantly surprised to see that the $200 had been deposited into it, withdrew the cash, and returned to the pub to continue drinking with his friends.
On his way back home, Dan decided he would have another go and transferred a further $200 from his Mastercard to his savings account. The same thing happened; the NAB machine flashed an alert that the transaction had been cancelled but the money had gone through.
‘I transferred another $200 and got the money out,’ Dan told Vice. ‘Then $500, then $600, just to see what would happen. I think it was a combination of being tipsy and bored but I just pushed the envelope and tried again and again.
‘It was like a magic trick.’ That night, Dan went to bed $2,000 richer.
What makes the tale even more absurd was that Dan was so overcome with guilt after his spending spree that he tried to turn himself in many times between 2011 and 2014 – but no one appeared to take him seriously
When he woke up the next morning, Dan was baffled by his experience and by the fact that his wallet was stuffed with cash he simply didn’t have, so he rang up his bank to try and make sense of what had happened.
He was told that his savings account was overdrawn by $2,000 (£972), meaning the system had overridden the error and readjusted the balances. With this crucial bit of information, Dan understood there was a ‘lag between what the ATM gave me and what my bank balance was’.
This gap usually occurs when ATMs go offline between 1am and 3am in the morning. Any transactions that are carried out during this period are only reconciled the following day when the system is back up and running.
This was his ‘eureka’ moment; Dan realised that if he used his Mastercard to transfer a bigger sum than what he owed the bank back into his savings account during this window, it would effectively wipe out his debt.
‘So, on the first day I spent $2,000, but on the second day I transferred $4,000 to make sure my balance didn’t stay negative,’ the man, now famously dubbed ‘ATM Boy’ explained. ‘The transfer at night would go through, then reverse one day later.’
Dan thought he’d hit the jackpot – but he hadn’t considered he was pushing
Within a couple of weeks, he had withdrawn $20,000 of the bank’s money.
Mesmerised by his newfound riches, Dan deposited $1,000 into the joint account he shared with his ‘missus’ who worked as a religious education teacher – and started punting recklessly.
Over the next four months, he splurged on everything from expensive escorts, luxury holidays, and meals at exclusive restaurants, to pricey gifts for his friends – including paying for one of them to fulfill her dream of studying in Paris
Ultimately, he lost both his job at the West Side Tavern as well as his girlfriend after a night of heavy gambling with his mate.
‘Turns out that we turned over more than the TAB would turn over in three weeks in one night so that alerted the TAB to the fact that we’d done that,’ he told Australia’s Current Affair.
‘I told them it was the friend who was taking the bets, but they didn’t want to take that on board and they got the publican to fire me as a result.’
To make matters worse, rumours that he was spending money all over town eventually made their way to his partner, who dumped Dan via a text message.
These setbacks didn’t stop Dan from exploiting the ATM loophole; in fact, they very likely fuelled what became a four-month bender bankrolled by the ‘free money’ Dan withdrew from the NAB cash point every night.
‘On one hand you’ve lost your girlfriend, lost your job, but on the other hand, hey, you’ve got unlimited funds. Let’s smash it up for a bit, let’s sort things out,’ he explained his mindset.
After Dan discovered the ‘loophole’ that meant he had a seemingly endless supply of ‘free money’, nothing was off the table.
Over the next four months, he splurged on everything from expensive escorts, luxury holidays, and meals at exclusive restaurants, to pricey gifts for his friends – including paying for one of them to fulfill her dream of studying in Paris.
A Robin Hood-sort of character, he would also sometimes book five-star hotel rooms for rough sleepers with a swipe of his mighty NAB card.
Photos from that period of Dan’s life show him posing in front of chartered planes and yachts, enjoying VIP treatment at nightclubs, and travelling to exotic destinations around the world
A Robin Hood-sort of character, he would also sometimes book five-star hotel rooms for rough sleepers with a swipe of his mighty NAB card.
Photos from that period of Dan’s life show him posing in front of chartered planes and yachts, enjoying VIP treatment at nightclubs, and travelling to exotic destinations around the world.
‘With the NAB card, I could be anyone I wanted to be, go anywhere I wanted to go, do anything as long as I had the card in my back pocket. I felt like a king.
‘I felt like a rock star, probably looked like a fat, white Kanye West, but you felt like you were Kanye West,’ the ‘accidental millionaire’ told ACA.
No longer a broke bartender, living paycheck to paycheck, Dan created many different aliases to new friends – including being a poker player, a surgeon and even an investment banker – all while living the life of a high-roller.
Remarkably, the bank never suspected anything was amiss; a represenative for NAB would occasionally call Dan to confirm he was using the card when an unsually large charge was made to it.
‘I’d reply, “Yes it’s me”, and they would say, “No problem Mr Saunders, sorry to bother you”.’
Dan once brazenly hosted NAB’s employees at a bar near the bank’s Melbourne headquarters and, pretending to be a millionaire businessman, thanked the bankers for making him who he was.
No longer a broke bartender, living paycheck to paycheck, Dan created many different aliases to new friends – including being a poker player, a surgeon and even an investment banker – all while living the life of a high-roller
By May, Dan had conned the bank out of $1.6 million – and also begun to feel the weight of his wrong-doing.
He was enduring sleepless nights, living in fear that he would be found out and arrested, and crippling anxiety attacks and, Dan recalled, ‘it wasn’t that long until I asked myself “Who are you?”‘
He told The Australian that his million-dollar fraud triggered a ‘total loss of values’ and, after he started seeing a psychologist, Dan decided to stop making anymore transfers.
Wrecked with guilt, Dan even called up NAB to confess what he had done, but was simply told the matter was under police investigation and that ‘you’re in a lot of trouble’ in June 2011.
Then he heard nothing for two years.
So, Dan decided to take his punishment into his own hands and contacted several media outlets to tell them how he’d stolen $1.6 million by exploting the technical fault in NAB’s ATM network.
It was only after his story was broadcast on Nine Network’s A Current Affair, when Dan said he’d lived like a ‘fat Kanye West’ for those four months, that he was finally arrested and charged with 111 counts of fraud.
‘I thought I was going to get totally reamed but the court was weird because no one actually understood what I did – not the judge, not the prosecutor – so it was very odd,’ Dan said of the trial that followed.
He told The Australian that his million-dollar fraud triggered a ‘total loss of values’ and, after he started seeing a psychologist, Dan decided to stop making anymore transfers
‘The bank provided minimal evidence so it was really just a case of “bad Dan, cop a whack” and that’s it.’
Dan pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to one year in jail, followed by an 18-month community corrections order.
‘Jail was hard, I saw a man killed in there, but losing my liberty was also a part of the overall experience,’ he later reflected on his time behind bars.
‘At times, I felt like I was in a reality show, but I got through it and life is once again my own.’
