Comments on: Automatic Withdrawal / Deposit Scam

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:58:28 +0000

What I find amazing is that the people who do these scams seem to be very clever. Some of them are bordering on genius. I know that’s probably not what you want to hear but we got to realize what we are up against. I don’t know how many times I have received scam emails that looked real. Thankfully I’ve deleted them but they seem relentless.

The lenghts these people will go to seem to be extreme.

Thanks for the heads up.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:58:04 +0000

I would hope not. The best practice to prevent this is to go over all transactions monthly.

By: bill

bill — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:17:30 +0000

Thanks to Check Clearing for the 21 Century Act, I would imagine this has become common place.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:45:26 +0000

Hello Mrs. Micah,

I think you’re right, It is very easy to get a list of routing numbers, then from there, the process is easy to automate. It is very important to always check your statements!

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:25:18 +0000

That’s a new one on me. It makes a lot of sense, seems easier than phishing and the like (once you get it set up).

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 10 May 2007 22:53:06 +0000

Sushma,

This is actually not a phishing scam. These thieves generate random account numbers and attach them to real bank routing numbers (which they have a list of). Then they send ACH deposits to these randomly generated accounts. If if the deposit does not get bounced back, they know they have a live account from which they make withdrawals.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:45:12 +0000

The banks can stop the charges, but until they are alerted that fraud is occurring, they do not know there is a problem. Banks handle billions of ACH transactions annually and there is no way to monitor all of them. It is the account holder’s responsibility to monitor their own account, and I personally wouldn’t want my bank to contact me every time I wanted to do an on-line transaction.

I’m sure once banks realize how a certain fraud is occurring to their bank and customers, they are quick to take action. But by then, the thieves are ready to move on and steal from other banks and customers.

As far as blacklisting certain groups or account numbers receiving these stolen funds – I’m sure these thieves regularly change them when people start catching on. It also doesn’t make too much difference if only one bank blacklists them, as there are thousands of banks out there. There would need to be a national listing for bank fraud that all banks subscribe to.

By: dimes

dimes — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 03:34:09 +0000

What the heck? Can’t they figure out where the charges are going and freeze them electronically?