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Bank of America customers hit by overseas ATM withdrawals
This could be nothing, but it looked interesting and thought I'd pass it along:Bank of America customers in Seattle have reported a rash of illegal cash withdrawals from checking accounts apparently coming from foreign automated teller machines and debit card purchases. According to customer service representatives at Bank of America, there have been numerous reports of checking account fraud in Seattle, but many more incidents being reported from other states. The increases in fraud reports are generally about overseas cash withdrawals, they said. Michael Chee, Bank of America's Pacific Coast spokesman, refused to say if the company was experiencing a rash of checking fraud. He would not confirm or deny any information that pertained to the bank's security investigations. He also declined to comment on any incidents in general or information from consumers and bank representatives. Seattle police have been taking "a lot" of calls and reports involving Bank of America customers, said police spokeswoman Debra Brown. She could not provide a specific number of complaints, but said that while officers routinely get calls about financial fraud involving a variety of banks, people have been reporting an unusual number of Bank of America-specific thefts. Samantha Crowley was assured by Bank of America that her business checking account would be credited after she reported 15 thefts to the bank and to police on Wednesday. Crowley doesn't know how her information would have ended up in the hands of thieves who, according to her bank records, withdrew cash from ATMs in Russia and in Chicago. [S]he has never been lured by e-mail "phishing" attacks -- e-mails that masquerade as official notices from financial institutions asking people to update their account information. "It's a concern for me that this information is out there," she said. "I want to find out how this kind of thing happened." Note: I edited out the handwringing and wild-a** guesses about how "The increase in this activity and the psychological impact on society might be a reason why the United States trails other countries in using high-tech payment systems," and the quotes from a university professor. I would much rather have seen some reporting on *which overseas countries* are making the withdrawals. Russia is mentioned, but no other information. Posted by: Seafarious 2006-01-22 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=140473 |