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2006-01-22 Home Front Economy

Bank of America customers hit by overseas ATM withdrawals

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Posted by Seafarious 2006-01-22 02:39|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Hmmmm. Looks like I'll have to scrutinize my accounts a little more diligently until this little event is straightened out....

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2006-01-22 04:03|| 2006-01-22 04:03|| Front Page Top

#2 Payback time. Rove really is an evil genius.

Posted by .com 2006-01-22 04:25|| 2006-01-22 04:25|| Front Page Top

#3 "The increase in this activity and the psychological impact on society might be a reason why the United States trails other countries in using high-tech payment systems."

No. The reason the US trails other countries in using high-tech payment systems is because our credit card companies and banks are still using cutting-edge security technologies from the 1980s, or even earlier.

Even though credit card fraud is and remains at obscenely high levels, mostly due to this refusal to upgrade their security by the credit card companies; the banks are allowing, permitting, or even condoning outright theft and fraud.

Credit card companies issue card numbers that are *consecutively* numbered, so if someone steals *a* card, they automatically know what the next 1-99 card numbers are, *and* their expiration dates. Security codes are only used by a tiny minority of companies to check card authenticity.

The biggest bank fraud, however, comes through "automatic withdrawl". Theoretically, such withdrawl can only be made from "flagged" accounts; but routinely, some corporations withdraw from $100 to $500 from unflagged accounts. The account holder is unaware of this until they get their monthly statement. When they complain, the bank shrugs and tells them to contact the corporation that took their money.

The corporation promptly returns the stolen money, but keeps the "float" on that money it had for a month; whereas the bank does *not* pay the interest to the account holder it would have paid on the stolen money, had it remained in the account.

This means both the bank and the corporations that do automatic withdrawl are rewarded handsomely for this fraud, and perhaps millions of small account holders are annually defrauded.

The amount of the fraud is too small for federal court, and the banks are too powerful for small claims court. By stealing just a few dollars from a hundred thousand people, they get away with it, where they would be prosecuted from stealing even a few hundred dollars from a person.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-01-22 09:24|| 2006-01-22 09:24|| Front Page Top

#4 Careful,Sea,this is a non-WOT article,and might upset the moderators(snicker).

Posted by raptor 2006-01-22 10:34|| 2006-01-22 10:34|| Front Page Top

#5 Hee hee, raptor. But let's say most of the fraudulent ATM withdrawals are being made in Lahore. (That is, if Lahore even *has* ATMs). Would that be an issue of concern? Maybe they're being made in the banlieus outside Paris. Would that cause any alarm bells to go off? Or would that be considered petty crime comitted by bored kids...

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2006-01-22 10:45|| 2006-01-22 10:45|| Front Page Top

#6 Interesting how you can order that telemarketers not call your landline phone, but you are not allowed to forbid withdrawals from your bank account into foreign ATM's, or withdrawals from your account direct to another corporation without your signature, etc. etc. The banks seem to be profiting indirectly from this theft, bit by bit.

Posted by Whutch Threth6418 2006-01-22 14:09|| 2006-01-22 14:09|| Front Page Top

#7 BTW - I got a phishing expedition email from "Paypal" saying overseas attempts were made to access my Paypal acct. I was directed to go to their "Paypal site link" and change my password.....nice try

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-01-22 14:21|| 2006-01-22 14:21|| Front Page Top

#8 Unfortunately, a major reason for the lack of security changes is not just the banks, but the merchants. They whine and scream if you try to increase the security measures in place for transactions. You'd not believe how often I got screamed at for not removing security features without a signed letter by the merchant accepting responsibility for chargebacks if they get fraudulant charges.

The Credit Card Processors have been trying to push people into upgrading to newer equipment and software but it's a very difficult sell to these merchants who typically want all the security features turned off to decrease the time it takes per transaction. So alot of the blame lies not just with banks but the merchants as well.

Another note, credit card fraud does fund terrorism, you don't hear much about it, but I've seen cases involving the FBI hunting for these guys.

Posted by Silentbrick">Silentbrick 2006-01-22 17:50|| 2006-01-22 17:50|| Front Page Top

#9 This is one of several reasons I have a signed, notarized statement that I presented to my bank several years ago that stipulated that a) I would not accept any credit cards, b) I did not want, nor would I accept, a "debit" card, and c) that I would not authorize ANY cash withdrawals from my account except by signed affidavit. I've had them take money out twice. Both times they not only apologized, but someone ended up being fired. Banks have rules they have to operate under. If you're thoughtful enough, and nasty enough, they'll do what you say. We've had our account at the same bank (different names, different owners) for 35+ years. It's not a big account, but we do seem to have some clout.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2006-01-22 18:03|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2006-01-22 18:03|| Front Page Top

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