Watch your numbers!

[wisconsinguy]

I want to share an incident that happened last week. I usually, 99% of the time, pay my bills online or via phone, via my debit account. In early Jan, while paying bills, I did a e-check to pay a utilities bill. On Monday of last week, I get a call from the financial officer from the facilities office. Stating that the bill payment was denied, and the attempt to pay the bill was from an "Unauthorized account." Bottom line... The bill payment was attempted from a different account. It was an unusual conversation. When this person asked a question, and I answered, she waited for an usual amount of time to the next question. She was waiting for a "confession." So of course I was responsible for the bill. No problem. On Thursday, answering the door, there are two detectives at my door, asking to come in. I had nothing to hide, so I said sure. The word "Fraud investigation" came into the conversation before they sat down. In the scan of 30 minutes they asked three times if I had hacked account numbers. I had the check number, and all the other info from the check. I gave them my routing number, account number. About 30 minutes after they left, the detective called and said that it "looked like you transposed some numbers. You will not hear from us again." I have always had an issue of transposing numbers. Especially at the end of series. My recommendations.

1) Caution when you use e-check. Double check your numbers.

2) Even in small communities, fraud and terrorist activities are are at the top of the list. WG2

[gallahadesquire]

A friend's brother is on SSDI. The SSA requires direct deposit. His didn't get deposited on whichever day of the month.

 

Come to find out, the bank routed it to his FATHER's SSA direct deposit account.

 

If you can't trust banks, who can you trust?

[+ deej]

looked like you transposed some numbers

 

It happens.

 

Not long ago, I got a call from Citibank's fraud detection unit. "Did you make an $8,000 charge at <a compressor company in MD>". Um, no.

 

"Oh, so the $10,000 charge we approved yesterday is also not yours?" Um, that would be correct.

 

In all there were three charges totaling almost $30K.

 

Citi immediately negated the one they'd approved and opened an investigation. A day or so later the vendor *also* issued a credit, so I had $16,000 credited to my account. (Yes, for a few days Citi owed *me* money! But they fixed that fairly quickly.)

 

I suspect (but never heard for sure) that it was a simple matter of someone transposing numbers on a credit card terminal and landing on my account. That's the only way I can explain the vendor putting through a credit for the charge Citi had already negated.

[+ purplekow]

A while back, when I mentioned that I paid in cash for something, a few came forward to ask why anyone would pay cash for anything. This is one of the reasons I gave. I am now in the middle of an investigation of a credit card started in my name from Citibank. The only charge was the card fee. The card is over a year old and has never been used. The telephone number is the number of a business which closed down 1 year before the card was first started. Time consuming but not costly. if for some reason the banks decided that you did indeed owe the money, it might cost a pretty penny of real money to get it straightened out.

[+ deej]

But note that it was never even in question whether I'd be held responsible for the charges. I wouldn't.

 

Debit cards have looser rules.

 

There ARE changes coming in credit card liabilities, but they don't really affect consumers much. With the switch to chipped cards from swiped cards, the card issuer will no longer be liable for fraudulent use. Liability will fall on the merchant. Expect to be asked for your ID a lot more often when you pay with credit cards.

 

Debit card users are still left out to dry.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

I decided years ago that the only time my debit card leaves my wallet is at the ATM. All of my purchases are made via cash or credit card. My logic is that while having fraud on either the credit card or debit card is problematic, if the debit card is compromised I'm out of the cash that they get for a day or two while the bank works through the fraud. If the fraud is on my credit card, even if it takes a couple of days to straighten it out, my balances are untouched.

[TruHart1]

I want to share an incident that happened last week...etc.

 

1) Caution when you use e-check. Double check your numbers.

2) Even in small communities, fraud and terrorist activities are are at the top of the list. WG2

 

I guess I've always been anal enough to double-check all numbers when entering my bank information for a transaction.

 

Even so, I have had two instances of two different credit cards issued to me being hijacked. Both times the credit card companies were very quick to notify me and inquire if the charges were mine since in both instances the charges were made in a part of the country where I would not usually charge any product or service! That wasn't making a numerical error, it was outright credit card fraud. Both times all the charges were quickly taken off that card and I was issued a new credit card with a new number.

 

TruHart1

[+ purplekow]

Still, credit card fraud is included in the price of doing business for the credit card companies and as a result fraud has a negative impact on the interest rate charge to each of us. So you may not bear the full burden of the fraud committed with your card, but we all carry the burden of all fraud in the excess interest charged that allow the banks to continue to offer unsecured credit.

[wisconsinguy]

A few yrs ago, both my ex and I were notified that our individual credit card numbers were hacked. Along with hundreds others. We were quickly issued new numbers. However...??? The creative nature of hackers is still out there. It makes no difference if it is a debit or credit card.

[rvwnsd]

...In early Jan, while paying bills, I did a e-check to pay a utilities bill. On Monday of last week, I get a call from the financial officer from the facilities office. Stating that the bill payment was denied, and the attempt to pay the bill was from an "Unauthorized account." Bottom line... The bill payment was attempted from a different account It was an unusual conversation. When this person asked a question, and I answered, she waited for an usual amount of time to the next question. She was waiting for a "confession." So of course I was responsible for the bill. No problem. On Thursday, answering the door, there are two detectives at my door, asking to come in. I had nothing to hide, so I said sure. The word "Fraud investigation" came into the conversation before they sat down. In the scan of 30 minutes they asked three times if I had hacked account numbers. I had the check number, and all the other info from the check. I gave them my routing number, account number. About 30 minutes after they left, the detective called and said that it "looked like you transposed some numbers. You will not hear from us again." I have always had an issue of transposing numbers. Especially at the end of series. My recommendations.

1) Caution when you use e-check. Double check your numbers.

2) Even in small communities, fraud and terrorist activities are are at the top of the list. WG2

 

I doubt law enforcement would have been summoned in a large city. In fact, I am surprised that the utility contacted them, given the financial offer obviously had access to the bank draft and could easily have determined the nature of the problem by confirming the account number with you over the phone. Moreover, they should have notified you in writing before contacting the police. I suspect the detectives have paid a visit to the financial officer and explained how not to handle a returned check.

 

 

A few yrs ago, both my ex and I were notified that our individual credit card numbers were hacked. Along with hundreds others. We were quickly issued new numbers. However...??? The creative nature of hackers is still out there. It makes no difference if it is a debit or credit card.

 

Well, it does make a difference. Although many financial institutions will extend the same protections to debit cards that they extend to credit cards, the rules around handling debit card disputes are different than those for credit cards. (As another poster pointed out) My advice is to use a credit card and not a debit card if you can.

 

Another piece of advice: Obtain a copy of your financial institution's debit card agreement and read it. It will detail their procedures for handing unrecognized charges. As I said, many institutions handle debit and credit cards the same way, but many do not. Surprisingly, it is typically the smaller banks and credit unions that follow the letter of the debit card law and the larger institutions that treat debit cards in a similar fashion as they do credit cards.

[bostonman]

A few yrs ago, both my ex and I were notified that our individual credit card numbers were hacked. Along with hundreds others. We were quickly issued new numbers. However...??? The creative nature of hackers is still out there. It makes no difference if it is a debit or credit card.

 

I have had several instances of cards being hacked, and luckily in each case the banks were either quick to notify ME of the problem, or were able to act on it as soon as I called. They must go through a hell of a lot of this, and indeed, "the creative nature of hackers" seems to guarantee it can only get worse.

 

To the question of actual accounting mistakes - I'll never forget an incident that happened to me in my early 20's. I was just out of college, and in fact I was working for my alma mater at that point. One day I received a check from them, for $1,000, and it said "refund" on the memo line. Now, I knew of no refund I was owed, nor was I expecting $1,000 extra from them anyway - so after a few minutes of greedily eyeing the check and knowing how much that money would come in handy, I did the right thing - I called the university. Sure enough, it turns out that the check had been intended for someone else with my same first/last name. They thanked me for looking into it, and no, they did not offer me anything in return, lol, except of course to suggest I rip up the check.

 

That was depressing, obviously. But instinctively, I knew the money wasn't mine anyway. And had I deposited it, there's a good chance that eventually they would have discovered their mistake and would have asked for the money back. So I know I did the right thing. But oh, that was a tough call, lol.

[wisconsinguy]

I doubt law enforcement would have been summoned in a large city. In fact, I am surprised that the utility contacted them, given the financial offer obviously had access to the bank draft and could easily have determined the nature of the problem by confirming the account number with you over the phone. Moreover, they should have notified you in writing before contacting the police. I suspect the detectives have paid a visit to the financial officer and explained how not to handle a returned check.

 

 

 

 

Well, it does make a difference. Although many financial institutions will extend the same protections to debit cards that they extend to credit cards, the rules around handling debit card disputes are different than those for credit cards. (As another poster pointed out) My advice is to use a credit card and not a debit card if you can.

 

Another piece of advice: Obtain a copy of your financial institution's debit card agreement and read it. It will detail their procedures for handing unrecognized charges. As I said, many institutions handle debit and credit cards the same way, but many do not. Surprisingly, it is typically the smaller banks and credit unions that follow the letter of the debit card law and the larger institutions that treat debit cards in a similar fashion as they do credit cards.

After talking with the utilities person I had a very distinct feeling that another person(s) were in her office. I used a check to pay the bill. So I entered routing number, account, and check number. That check never cleared. When the detective called, she simply told me to double check my numbers. She also said she and her partner had some "tips" for the utilities company on how to handle these matters. Since there was not a warrant, and I had that check "voided out" in my checkbook, I gave them that checks numbers. It was after that I believe they cross checked with utilities. I am still surprised that it took over two months for this to come to light.