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WTF someone used my checking account to pay their verizon wireless bill online

yhelothar

yhelothar

Lifer
The statement gives the name of the person who made the charge, which obviously does not match mine. I have no idea who they are.

I called verizon wireless about it after I disputed the charge with my bank, and they won't do jack about it.

So how the hell does it authorize a payment without even identifying the owner of the account?
 
Originally posted by: Baked
Wait, who won't do jack about the mischarge? The bank or verizon?
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Verizon. The bank is settling it now. I was hoping verizon to do some investigating themselves, since it's fricken obvious my bank account doesn't belong to the person who made the charge. It wouldn't be too much fvcking work to do a chargeback.
 
this brings up a question...

What is to stop someone from keying your account number (either intentionally or not) when they make an online payment. Most of the time, you just key in a transit routing number and your account number.

What if I just change a few digits of my account number?? I might get lucky and hit the account of someone else at my bank...There is nothing you can do to stop this.

Not sure if web payment sites verify anything else when they process a payment...
 
Originally posted by: spacejamz
this brings up a question...

What is to stop someone from keying your account number (either intentionally or not) when they make an online payment. Most of the time, you just key in a transit routing number and your account number.

What if I just change a few digits of my account number?? I might get lucky and hit the account of someone else at my bank...There is nothing you can do to stop this.

Not sure if web payment sites verify anything else when they process a payment...
Click to expand...


Good websites verifies expiration dates, name, address, and additional security codes (CVV or whatever you call em). If any of those does not match, the payment is rejected, either on the spot or they will email you later and tell you.
 
I work at a Credit Union and see stuff like this all the time. Most of the time it is people who aren't careful when they are filling out paperwork. What happens is someone accidentally mis-writes their account number, say 111111 instead of 111110 and 111111 is someone elses account. The computer finds that incorrect account number and posts the charge. So you may not use Verizon but the person who erroniously wrote their account number does and the account number on the charge matches an account number at the financial institution the charge was sent to, so it posts to the incorrect account. What most people see and assume is fraud, is usually just a clerical error on someones part.
 
Originally posted by: bleuiko
Originally posted by: spacejamz
this brings up a question...

What is to stop someone from keying your account number (either intentionally or not) when they make an online payment. Most of the time, you just key in a transit routing number and your account number.

What if I just change a few digits of my account number?? I might get lucky and hit the account of someone else at my bank...There is nothing you can do to stop this.

Not sure if web payment sites verify anything else when they process a payment...
Click to expand...


Good websites verifies expiration dates, name, address, and additional security codes (CVV or whatever you call em). If any of those does not match, the payment is rejected, either on the spot or they will email you later and tell you.
Click to expand...

ACH/EFT debits are not linked to a debit/credit card and therefore do not go through the same (or for that matter much of any) verification process.
 
Originally posted by: jdobratz
I work at a Credit Union and see stuff like this all the time. Most of the time it is people who aren't careful when they are filling out paperwork. What happens is someone accidentally mis-writes their account number, say 111111 instead of 111110 and 111111 is someone elses account. The computer finds that incorrect account number and posts the charge. So you may not use Verizon but the person who erroniously wrote their account number does and the account number on the charge matches an account number at the financial institution the charge was sent to, so it posts to the incorrect account. What most people see and assume is fraud, is usually just a clerical error on someones part.
Click to expand...

Aren't the checks electronic though? Billing information like name, address, phone number?
 
Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Aren't the checks electronic though? Billing information like name, address, phone number?
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Not all places require a blank/void check to setup and ach debit. Some places will let you just give them your account number and they will use that to send through a debit. When we recieve an ACH file, it usually has the companys information in the header and then a list of account numbers, names and amounts. Now, the names are not always there. Sometimes it is just a list of account numbers and amounts. So we are basically just blindly posting amounts to account numbers. I do not work directly in the ACH dept., but I field enough calls about it to know most of how it works, also, I am not at all familiar with ACH laws, just how it works in our particular institution/software package.
 
Originally posted by: God On Alcohol
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
You shouldn't have clicked the link in that email asking you to update your information.
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FTW
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I just got one of these today from "Wellsfargo" stating that my account was locked out because there were too many login attempts. Sure enough, on checking the source code for the html in the mail, the link didn't go where it said it did.
 
Originally posted by: jdobratz
I work at a Credit Union and see stuff like this all the time. Most of the time it is people who aren't careful when they are filling out paperwork. What happens is someone accidentally mis-writes their account number, say 111111 instead of 111110 and 111111 is someone elses account. The computer finds that incorrect account number and posts the charge. So you may not use Verizon but the person who erroniously wrote their account number does and the account number on the charge matches an account number at the financial institution the charge was sent to, so it posts to the incorrect account. What most people see and assume is fraud, is usually just a clerical error on someones part.
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought it might be that. BTW they obtained my checking account number and it's not a debit card transaction. So as someone said, all they need to charge my checking account number is the number and the routing number. Why is there no extra security/verfication as there is with credit cards to prevent these stupid typos?
 
They needed your checking account number AND a routing number. I don't see anyway this could have been done by mistake.
 
Originally posted by: Ornery
They needed your checking account number AND a routing number. I don't see anyway this could have been done by mistake.
Click to expand...

Why couldn't it have been done by mistake? If it was done by mistake by someone who uses the same bank as the OP, then the routing number would be the same. All it would take is to mistype the account number, which could easily be done if one's not paying attention to what they're doing. How likely it would be to mistype an account number and have it be another valid account, I don't know, but it's certainly possible to be done by mistake.
 
Originally posted by: spacejamz
this brings up a question...

What is to stop someone from keying your account number (either intentionally or not) when they make an online payment. Most of the time, you just key in a transit routing number and your account number.

What if I just change a few digits of my account number?? I might get lucky and hit the account of someone else at my bank...There is nothing you can do to stop this.

Not sure if web payment sites verify anything else when they process a payment...
Click to expand...

For this reason I will no longer leave outgoing mail in our mailbox with the flag up if it has a check in it. All someone needs now to charge your checking account is a sample check. I can't believe they left it this wide open. My wife is a bookkeeper at an elementary school and they kept getting false debits passed through the schools checking account for bill payments in Florida, Georgia, Tennesee etc. Each time my wife would have to fight tooth and nail with the bank to get them reversed. You would think it would be clear that a school in Virginia would not be paying someones electric bill in Florida. They ended up having to close the account and opening a new one to halt it.
 
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