by NetDiver
Fri Aug 07, 2015 2:14 am
Hey all.
I work as a fraud investigator for a large national bank's customer service department and we occasionally receive messages from mods at this site through our social media presence, informing us that certain accounts have been reported as being used to commit fraud. I thought it was a pretty interesting concept and a good idea for a website, sort of vigilante justice against one of the most rampant forms of crime out there. So far we haven't been alerted to anything we weren't already aware of/hadn't shut down yet, but it's still an admirable thing to do.
Ultimately, while banks (good ones, at least, certainly the one I work for) want to protect consumers as best they can, with millions of customers and tens of millions of transactions per day, there's only so much they can stop. Frequently scam victims, for example those who have cashed a counterfeit cashier's check and wired money before the check bounced, or who've been recruited as unwitting money mules to forward on fraudulent ACH/wire deposits, try to divert blame on to the bank in some way or another. They'll say the teller should have recognized the counterfeit check and not accepted the deposit, or the bank shouldn't have released funds before the check cleared. For one thing, Federal Regulation CC requires banks to follow certain timelines for funds availability, which makes it impossible to fully verify every check before releasing funds. And long-time customers, especially those who've never had an overdraft and keep a steady balance, expect immediate availability as a perk for their loyalty.
In the end, despite their complaints, most scam victims are left footing the bill for the negative balance, because the bank cannot be expected to take a loss to reimburse everyone who falls for the same tricks that have been going around since the internet was first spawned (and in some cases earlier). The account agreement states that the customer is responsible for all items deposited into his or her account, and is responsible for maintaining reasonable safeguard over his or her own sensitive account information (i.e. acct # or PIN).
Given this, there's nothing more important than education and prevention in fighting the harm caused by fraud. Once the hook has been taken and the funds have been sent via WU or MoneyGram, it's too late and that money's not coming back. So while I won't be able to offer any specific insight into banking or investigative procedure, I definitely want to contribute general info I come across in the course of work, about various scams and frauds commonly going around and what you can do to avoid them.
I work as a fraud investigator for a large national bank's customer service department and we occasionally receive messages from mods at this site through our social media presence, informing us that certain accounts have been reported as being used to commit fraud. I thought it was a pretty interesting concept and a good idea for a website, sort of vigilante justice against one of the most rampant forms of crime out there. So far we haven't been alerted to anything we weren't already aware of/hadn't shut down yet, but it's still an admirable thing to do.
Ultimately, while banks (good ones, at least, certainly the one I work for) want to protect consumers as best they can, with millions of customers and tens of millions of transactions per day, there's only so much they can stop. Frequently scam victims, for example those who have cashed a counterfeit cashier's check and wired money before the check bounced, or who've been recruited as unwitting money mules to forward on fraudulent ACH/wire deposits, try to divert blame on to the bank in some way or another. They'll say the teller should have recognized the counterfeit check and not accepted the deposit, or the bank shouldn't have released funds before the check cleared. For one thing, Federal Regulation CC requires banks to follow certain timelines for funds availability, which makes it impossible to fully verify every check before releasing funds. And long-time customers, especially those who've never had an overdraft and keep a steady balance, expect immediate availability as a perk for their loyalty.
In the end, despite their complaints, most scam victims are left footing the bill for the negative balance, because the bank cannot be expected to take a loss to reimburse everyone who falls for the same tricks that have been going around since the internet was first spawned (and in some cases earlier). The account agreement states that the customer is responsible for all items deposited into his or her account, and is responsible for maintaining reasonable safeguard over his or her own sensitive account information (i.e. acct # or PIN).
Given this, there's nothing more important than education and prevention in fighting the harm caused by fraud. Once the hook has been taken and the funds have been sent via WU or MoneyGram, it's too late and that money's not coming back. So while I won't be able to offer any specific insight into banking or investigative procedure, I definitely want to contribute general info I come across in the course of work, about various scams and frauds commonly going around and what you can do to avoid them.
Last edited by NetDiver on Fri Aug 07, 2015 2:30 am, edited 3 times in total.
