Check-actuated control mechanisms – With additional – disparate means preventing fraudulent... – Means preventing use of tethered check
Patent
1993-09-24
1994-12-20
Huppert, Michael S.
Check-actuated control mechanisms
With additional, disparate means preventing fraudulent...
Means preventing use of tethered check
G07F 302, G07F 104
Patent
active
053739299
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present application relates to the prevention of fraud in coin validators.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A well-known method of fraud associated with coin-operated machines involves attaching string or thread to a genuine coin and then inserting the coin into the machine while holding the string. Once the coin has passed the validating section and caused an appropriate amount of credit to be accumulated, the user is able to stop the coin from passing into a storage section by use of the string. He can then operate the machine to obtain goods or services, and then retrieve the coin, for example, by pressing an escrow return button.
U.K. Patent Application No. 2,250,622 in the name of the present applicant provides a solution to this problem, wherein the presence of a thread under tension or the presence of a thick thread is detected.
It would be desirable to provide another means of avoiding such fraud and one which does not depend on a user applying tension to the trailing thread.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for preventing fraud in a coin validator wherein a thread is attached to a coin to be validated, comprising thread-detecting means arranged to be operated by a thread under tension, and means responsive to the operation of the thread-detecting means for inhibiting validation of the attached coin, characterised in that said apparatus further comprises means for gripping the thread so as to cause sufficient tension to operate the thread-detecting means irrespective of any tension applied thereto by a user.
The invention extends to coin validators incorporating such apparatus and to vending machines incorporating such coin validators.
The term "thread" is intended to embrace any elongate flexible material which could be attached to a coin for the above-mentioned type of fraud.
In a preferred embodiment the tension is applied to the thread by means of a flap which opens to allow a coin to pass but subsequently closes so as frictionally to engage any trailing thread, thereby applying tension. The flap is preferably caused to open by the weight of the coin itself, although it would be possible to provide a sensing arrangement upstream of the flap which senses the presence of a coin and causes the flap to open. The flap is conveniently biassed into its closed state by means of a counterweight and/or a spring. The flap is preferably arranged to pivot between its open and closed states, although an arrangement for causing the flap to slide in and out of the coin path would also be possible.
The thread, once tensioned, can be detected by a lever which is positioned so as to be actuated by the tensioned thread. Actuation of the lever can be sensed by optical or other means so as to generate a signal for inhibiting the coin validation. Such inhibition can be achieved by inhibiting the operation of the coin validator or by merely inhibiting an output of the coin validator or by deducting a credit value therefrom.
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of preventing fraud in a coin validator wherein a thread is attached to a coin to be validated, comprising: validation of the attached coin, sufficient tension for the thread to be detected irrespective of any tension applied thereto by a user.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Arrangements embodying the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective front view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a cross-section showing the operation of the flap in the embodiment of FIG. 2; and
FIG. 4 is a perspective, exploded rear view of the embodiment of FIG. 2.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to FIG. 1, a coin validator to which the present invention may be applied consists of an entrance hopper 1 into which a coin 2 may be inserted by a user. A coin thus inserte
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patent: 5145046 (1992-09-01), Satoh
Chittleborough Michael
Johnson Peter R.
Lloyd Robert G.
Meeks Alan M. G.
Huppert Michael S.
Lowe Scott L.
Mars Incorporated
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