“Like most consumers, I had always assumed that banks and customers are united in wanting to curtail bank fraud.”

So begins an August 23rd article in the Huffington Post. I’ve been saying for years that banks have a revenue stream in fraud. I made the statement very publicly as Merchant911′s Director on the CBS Evening News several years ago in reference to chargeback fees to merchants. Naturally, an American Banker’s Association spokesperson denied it – instead saying the fees were “to encourage the merchant to be more careful.” I’m not sure I understand the difference there but that’s what they said.

At any rate, if you think the bank is your friend and wants to stop fraud, I suggest that you read the Huffington Post article above. You should probably put aside any preconceived ideas first. It might keep you from being quite so shocked.

According to a recent article in Money Talk News, credit card issuers are patting themselves on the back after a new report shows they’ve gotten rid of many “unfair” or “deceptive” practices consumers complained about.

My recent credit card statements have announced how the bank is now “allowing” me to opt in to “overdraft protection.” They don’t mention that it’s now the law, in the hope that I’ll think they are doing it to be nice. They’re also telling me that they won’t raise my interest rates on existing balances. Same deal. It’s now the law, not their great customer satisfaction goal.

The fact is that the CARD Act forced the banks to make these changes. To add to that, the banks are finding other ways to tack on fees to make up for the lost revenue. Watch for these:

We talked about some of the things they pulled before the law went into effect. Now they need to take a different road. Never forget that banks are in business to make money–lots of money. Have you ever seen a less than perfect bank building? Fees that the new federal laws won’t allow will be replaced by others. You can count on it.

If you need justification for checking your credit card statement, this would be a good one. How about an online scam running for four years, debiting accounts, 1.35 million of them, by as little as $0.25 at a time. The debits were put into the accounts of bogus merchants set up by the scammers aided by unsuspecting mules throughout the U.S.

According to the FTC, the source of the stolen cards in unknown but I would be willing to bet that at least a good part of them came from the ongoing credit and debit card data breaches perpetrated by Albert Gonzalez and his bunch. After all, he god 170 million card accounts.

Out of the 1.35 Million consumers bilked out of these small sums, only 78,724 theft were reported. This pretty much convinces me that a lot of you folks aren’t checking your credit card statements like you should be. Every statement. Every month. Every time.

You read about it almost every day. You see it on Television. You even get warnings on your statements. But apparently you aren’t doing it.

Don’t think for a minute that it can’t happen to you. It can. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. I promise. Those 170 million card numbers that the Gonzalez gang got is two-thirds of the population of the Unites States. Those card numbers did not go to jail with Gonzalez. They are still out there in the hands of the fraudsters. And there are a lot more bad guys out there still hard at work to steal your money.

Source:
Computerworld article

If you get a large number of telephone calls that mean nothing, it probably means that your bank account is under attack. The calls would be numerous short duration calls consisting of dead air (nothing on the other end), an innocuous recorded message, advertisement, or a telephone sex menu. The bad guys are blocking the bank from verifying a change in your information and they are attempting to take over your account.

If you have received these calls – or receive them in the future – immediately call the banks that you do business with and then report it to the IC3 webisite.

SOURCE: http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm

I wish you all a wonderful Memorial Day holiday. As you enjoy it, and you should, please keep these two powerful images in mind as a reminder of what the holiday is about.

Thank you to all who served!