Bank Of America ATMs In San Francisco Turned Into 'Truth Machines' (PHOTO)

Bank of America customers in San Francisco hoping to make a quick withdrawal got a surprise last weekend when local activists placed stickers criticizing the bank's investments on ATM screens across the city.

The Rainforest Action Network reports that some of its members helped turn the ATMs into what they called "truth machines" using stickers that were "designed to look exactly like BoA's ATM interface."

Writing on their blog, the group explained the false ATM menus:

[T]hese new menus offered a list of everything BoA customers' money is being used for, including investment in coal-fired power plants, foreclosure on Americans' homes, bankrolling of climate change, and paying for fat executive bonuses.

This isn't the first time in recent months that activists have challenged the supremacy of massive U.S. banks. In November, Bank Transfer Day offered a chance for customers of too-big-to-fail financial institutions to close their accounts and transfer their funds to local banks or credit unions.

Meanwhile, BofA has been creating enough bad press for itself, with a near-foreclosure caused by a typo, a bride who was unable to deposit wedding checks because she didn't take her husband's name and a man who was asked to pay interest on a $0 credit card balance all in the last three months.

Via RAN.org

h/t Maria Popova

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[stepheniegwen]

02:58 PM on 01/19/2012

Love it.

[UberdanSounds]

12:02 PM on 01/19/2012

That's awesome! They brought it on themselves, now they will suffer the consequences.

V

[DJ OKC]

01:37 AM on 01/19/2012

Enough already.

[Margie Becker]

09:17 PM on 01/18/2012

I don,t think there is a credit union place in my town,,

[CrzyRussell]

07:15 PM on 01/18/2012

I hope that the people who needed to use the Atm were able to. Activists tend to ignore the effects that their protests have on ordinary people.

[Unreadable]

12:18 AM on 01/19/2012

They just put a piece of paper over the screen, not a huge obstacle in my opinion. It's not like you can't lift a piece of paper, right?

[toddyP]

12:48 AM on 01/19/2012

Sorry pal, protesters are "ordinary" people...

[ssnt]

03:54 PM on 01/18/2012

Libs won't likey what happens if BOA goes BK.

[baldguy]

08:44 AM on 01/19/2012

So BOA should just be allowed to continue their scumbaggery behavior?

[ssnt]

05:44 PM on 01/19/2012

If you don't like them, then move to a CU? A BK of BAC will not be pretty.

[ZestyDeluxe]

03:00 PM on 01/19/2012

"Libs"...? Why is it that CONS are always preaching that "free-market solving everything" when we're talking about a largely blue-collar employer, like GM. However, you want to protect BofA for some unknown reason. They deserve to BK because of the horrible way they have treated their customers for a very long time.

I couldn't care less if BOA went belly up, I moved to a Credit Union over 20 years ago.

[ssnt]

05:43 PM on 01/19/2012

Let's take this slowly. Who get's burned when a company goes bankrupt?

[giwel7]

02:57 PM on 01/18/2012

"truth" and bank of america in the same sentance can be unsettling . however after reading the article good job rainforest action network!

[gneep]

02:45 PM on 01/18/2012

I quit using BOA back in the 70ies when some pipsqueak turned me down for a loan. I was making more $ than him.

[Mitchman57]

11:54 AM on 01/18/2012

I ended up in BoA's maw twice because they took over the smaller banks I moved to.... yes, TWICE!

The bigger/more stable we make the 'small' banks, the better they look to the big ones. Be careful what you wish for.

[daily randy]

11:03 AM on 01/18/2012

I'd like to withdraw "3 more degrees of hot weather this winter" from my "Bankroll Climate Change" account ... it's cold outside. Brrrrr.

[Jamie Kowalski]

02:54 PM on 01/18/2012

Careful... the interest is brutal!

[olddognewtrick]

11:02 AM on 01/18/2012

BAC stock is currently selling for 6.66...hmmmmm...

[SteveC 1979]

03:53 PM on 01/18/2012

Hmmm indeed.

May have to make a purchase. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[an seanchus mor]

10:18 AM on 01/18/2012

Their cash withdrawl fee is the biggest surprise I've gotten from B of A atm. For what?????

[Amanda Hout Howell]

10:16 AM on 01/18/2012

I have my mortgage with BofA......If I could change banks I would.....believe me I would!

[giwel7]

02:59 PM on 01/18/2012

if you did not take out the original mortgage with bank of america you might check on who really may or may not really have legal standing with your mortgage.

[AlexDamian]

04:20 PM on 01/18/2012

They bought ours, and we're about to refinance. They've been tormenting us for over a year after our account with them was thefted, which they did nothing about.

Now they've:
1.) withdrawn mortgage payments from the BoA account we were trying to close illegally (we'd unauthorized autodrafts and were paying from a different bank account)
2.) put us in collections for said money that we didn't owe
3.) tried to claim we weren't paying our mortgage (our bank begs to differ, as do our records)
4.) finally, told us we had an outstanding bill of several thousand dollars that we had to pay yesterday or face foreclosure while refusing to show us what this bill was for.

I'm starting to think this house is on an oil well, the efforts they're putting into trying to take it! They're crooked, everything they're doing to us is illegal and they just do not care.

[MollieinATL]

10:08 AM on 01/18/2012

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

As a SFO native, these kind of shenanigans make me homesick. I may not be as committed to the message as the hackers are, but I give anyone points for creativity and for getting my attention. And as a lazy, ambivalent BofA customer this will stick with me. We're in a little mortgage BofA quagmire ourselves - but nothing compared to many Americans - so we haven't been bothered to fight it. But we can still change checking accounts to another bank. Hmmmm...

(Coal fired power plants? Yuck.)

[Harry Hazell]

10:02 AM on 01/18/2012

No one is bothered that there's no condemnation of the act of vandalism in the article? Just a wink, and then reminders about BofA's bad press and a statement from the vandals?

How about 'this is what the vandals are using as a defense when the police arrest them'?

[teknofyl]

10:23 AM on 01/18/2012

It's a STICKER.

[Harry Hazell]

08:00 PM on 01/19/2012

You wouldn't think it's a problem if someone put a big sticker over a Starbucks window that said "Socialist," then, right? It's just a sticker.

[MollieinATL]

10:28 AM on 01/18/2012

Hello. It's the Huffington Post. The only people bothered are people like you who come here just to be bothered in the first place - and so to answer your question...yes, someone is bothered.

[olddognewtrick]

11:03 AM on 01/18/2012

why bother...

[Harry Hazell]

07:59 PM on 01/19/2012

I read the HuffingtonPost to get balance from the Drudge Report. I don't like it when Matt Drudge suggests that we should be panicked about Obama, either. I'm a moderate.

But yes, I am bothered by vandalism not being treated like it's a big deal.