Posted on 10/07/2007 8:34:16 PM PDT by topher
A married couple had the horror of finding out someone had gotten hold of their checking account information -- routing code and account number.
The fraud was based on cashing checks using the stolen routing/account information at Wal-Mart. Another name was used on the fraudulent checks...
Apparently, to expedite customer sales, there is limited validation on check purposes [since Wal-Mart is the low price leader, it cannot afford to spend much labor to protect customers...]
Almost all of the $2000 that was de-frauded from the account was spent at Wal-Mart, the Wal-Mart gas stations and at Sam's.
Though the couple who were de-frauded reported this to the police, they are out the $2000, thanks to Wal-Mart...
In this particular case, a bogus name was used on the fraudulent checks. In other words, if the real person's name was Freddie and Jane Doe, it was a name like Laura Clinton used on the checks [why not use the Clinton as one associated with corruption in this example].
I know Wal-Mart has been fined because of all its illegal alien employees, but apparently there is poor quality in the employees/procedures at Wal-Mart to allow this to happen...
Nice Walmart bash. Walmart uses the same “validation” as any of the other big box stores like Target, Sears, or grocery stores like Kroger.
FYI, the illegal alien employees weren’t direct employees of Walmart, they were contractors’ employees.
Not surprised at all. Personally, I’ve never set foot in China-Mart.
A merchant has a minimum duty to verify that the account number on the check being presented does, in fact, belong to the person doing the presenting. This includes asking for identification. If the trail is not too cold, they may even have a videotape of the transaction.
At worst, the bank dinging the defrauded person's account must be able to present the check as evidence. If it shows up as a counter check (account numbers written in), then the merchant has an even higher duty to verify it is genuine-- including writing a driver's license or other form of identification on the check. The bank should be in trouble big time for cashing such a check, particularly with unmatched signatures.
Maybe that is just the New Jersey Wal-Mart's that English is not necessarily spoken by some employees. This employee was stocking selves, so maybe they did not require English to be spoken...
Also, due to privacy laws, (and to the best of my recollection) there can be no verification of name against routing number/account number.
This sounds very suspicious. What bank doesn’t offer it’s customers fraud protection? I’m not believing that this couple is out $2,000. This reads like a spammed email.
A more common fraud these days is someone with a cell phone taking a picture of a credit card so that infomration can be stolen from that.
This is the first time I have heard of a checking account fraud like this with a major store chain -- such as Wal-Mart...
If this really happened, the checking account owner won't be out the money.
It's just like any stolen check case.
Nice troll, though.
I know the new electronic check system has complicated matters, but generally fraudulent transactions are supposed to be absorbed by the bank or retailer, not the customer.
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I don’t believe the victims would be held liable for the $2000.
No, but I do know WM *lost* some info not long ago, so it's possible.
Last year someone got a hold my our bank account info (routing & account number) and my name & address. They purchased stuff in three stores using our account info, but the checks were not from our bank. One of the places they purchased stuff was Wal-Mart. Because Wal-Mart uses checks like debit cards, it took three times a long for our bank to reimburse the money. No doubt Wal-Mart (and Office Depot) use this check/debit thing because it saves them lots of time & money, but when fraud is involved it takes up a lot of time for the victim.
In my case it would not have mattered if they checked ID, because the thief had a fake ID with my name & such on it.
I agree. Sort of weak. Except to anyone who is prone to believe Walmart=evil then of course they'll lap it up as the gospel because you know only Wal-Mart uses that system since they hate us all. I give it a three for thought time and perhaps a 1 1/2 for actual believability. But if it upsets them so, less people to deal with when I go into Wal-Mart I say.
Of course there is a deeper issue of ID theft here but it's not just Wal-Mart.
You’re assumption makes sense. It’s implausible to me to think someone would get my card and be able to use it! Hell, even the gas pumps demand my zipcode!
The couple at some point had no money in the checking account.
The bank may have already re-imbursed the money back to the couple.
I just thought it was harder these days to perform this type of fraud.
The bad checks were supposedly written in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The couple who had the account lived in South Louisiana...
Ahh! Katrina.....
The people defrauded may have had more trouble with their bank as their account was setup to withdraw from savings when the checking account was overdrawn...
The people defrauded were not from the Katrina area (Southeast Louisiana), but from Southwest Louisiana...
I lived on the Gulf for some time and in no way dis-respect the good people that call the area home. (I marched to work and back for months). :^)
They did not just use Wal-Mart.
They hit a high priced clothing store three times. That store actually sent me a “gift card” which offered 15% off my next purchase.
No, it is not just the NJ stores that have this problem, and it’s not just Wal-Mart either.
We’ve got a real big problem on our hands and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
It is frightening that the illegals use quite a bit of tax money. They are not adding tax dollars but draining them by one report done.
So the Illegal Immigrant issue is a key issue for 2008 because it will cost US taxpayers more tax dollars and probably drive up taxes even more...
If their state has enacted some version of the Uniform Commercial Code, this couple should have an excellent case against their bank for paying the bogus checks. They need to demand that bank recredit their account, and let the bank fight with Wal-Mart as to who eats the loss.
From your title I thought Wal-Mart was intentionally trying to cash bad checks.
Seems like this is just anothertype Wal-Mart bash from reading the story.
I don’t write checks at stores any more but I just heard from a friend of mine that she wrote a check at Wal-Mart and they swiped the check, marked it void and gave it back to her. The amount of the check is deducted from her checking account just like a debit card. First time I had heard this but that is what she told me.
My original question stands: Can you point to a credible news source concerning this story? This reeks of a made up email.
Sorry, the story isn't passing the smell test.
The only way that they'd be out that much money is if they didn't bother to timely report the forgeries to the bank. And you can't really blame WalMart for that, can you?
In short, their dispute should be with their bank, not with WalMart.
09/25/2007 WAL MART BARSTOW CA 19.59
09/25/2007 WAL-MART #1879 BARSTOW CA 111.73
I have emailed WalMart about this incident at their Barstow store.
The stolen credit card account was closed on 09/25/2007 but after the card was used.
The authorized user of the credit card lost a wallet in Victorville, CA earlier that day.
I am the Holder of the credit card account in this post. I do not live in California.
I am working on the case...
Of course they were.
That’s an Electronic Funds Transfer, or “eCheck”. It’s the latest thing, many retailers either already use it or have just started. It’s cheaper for everyone, including you.
But you can’t be stupid amd just toss the returned check in the trash on the way out the door, either...
That's true. The reason I found out about this Wal-Mart check thing from this woman is that after she got the check back she went to locate it later and couldn't find it. That led her to her bank where she closed out her account and had to establish a new one. There was other stuff she had to cancel also. Not a pretty picture.
Um.... until someone calls the card company and reports the card as stolen, the card is technically still valid and when queried the VISA computers will authorize the charge because nobody has told them different.
Nothing to do with Walmart. Any retailer that does not require you to show ID to use a card (most of them) would have also processed the charge. This is why you carry those “customer service” or “in case of emergency” numbers that are printed on the back of your card on speed dial in your cell phone.
That said, your card agreement should state that if unauthorized charges are made on your card, you should get a refund within 30-90 days. Some cards offer it in 24 hours or less. If you have an old dinosaur card agreement that doesn’t say that, this is a good reason to upgrade.
I hardly see how the “goodness” or “badness” of a multi-billion-dollar corporation with thousands of stores could be ascertained based on the language skills of one stockboy in one location.
Funny you mentioned gas pumps using zip code.
I always use credit cards, and I had NEVER had a gas pump ask for a zip code.
Until last night, I was getting gas in Pennsylvania on 95 south in one of those service areas, and the Exxon station pump asked for my zip code.
So I know what you are talking about, but I’ve never seen it in Virginia where I live, or any of the places I’ve every travelled.
It’s a rare store that asks to see my signature on the back of my card, OR for a picture ID.
So I think almost any store I go to will allow a person to use a stolen credit card.
The credit companies seem not to care, and accept the cost of bad transactions as part of their business. Of course if you don’t catch it on your monthly statement, YOU get to pay for it.
You could try only buying at stores that ask for ID and check your signature, but you won’t get to shop at very many stores any more.
And you could force the cashier to check your id, but that won’t really help.
I’m not a big fan of the new “electronic check” legislation, that allows checks to be scanned and sent like real checks. At LEAST, I wish the system included the check number so the bank would detect replicated checks.
But again, if you catch the error on your monthly statement, you won’t be out any money, and if your bank wants to eat the cost of fraud as part of their business, that’s their choice.
You could use cash for everything, then nobody could trace you and nobody could defraud you. They could rob you of course.
And if you lose your cash, unlike your credit card you can’t cancel it, nor will anybody reimburse you if someone finds it and starts spending it.
He confirmed that all of the checks cashed against his and his wife's account were made by Wal-Mart/Sam's.
If you read some of the other replies, you will see that Wal-Mart uses a different means of cashing checks. They treat them as DEBIT transactions...
The person claimed that he said that Wal-Mart did not check ID...
There was one person in this thread who claims that Wal-Mart now VOIDS the check and processes as a DEBIT transaction.
Someone else on this thread claims that they were the victims of CREDIT THEFT, and that because Wal-Mart uses Debit type transactions for Checks, it takes three days to find problems with such transactions...
The couple has gotten all of the money back, and maybe it was the bank that had to re-imburse the money (versus Wal-Mart).
Basically, you have the trouble of having to go to your bank and then to the police and spend the time to do this to straighten out the issues.
They did have one choice -- whether or not to prosecute the person/persons using the checking account fraudulently.
There are posters on this thread that Wal-Mart does things differently than other stores -- they treat a check as a DEBIT transaction.
One person learned this because they were the victim of Identity Theft. Another person on this thread claims that a person they know says that Wal-Mart now processes a Check as a "Voided Check" and then processes as a DEBIT transaction.
A Debit Card transaction requires a PIN plus the card itself may have special encoding to prevent fraud (I am only guessing here).
If I am wrong, so be it, but it appears Wal-Mart is doing something different -- checks as DEBIT transactions -- which may be the mechanism that facilitates this type of scam...
Re ZIPs at gas stations - every station I have used in greater Houston area asks for it and must match one on billing. Put in office zip one time in error and it wouldn’t let me use pump w/o talking to mgr.
After writing that, I went to the local K-Mart and they had me enter a zip code as well. But the Lowes didn’t, so it may be spreading slowly in our area.
I guess the Louisiana State Police are part of the troll...
This memo is from webpage:
Actually, my title is not misleading.
It is Wal-Mart employees that are part of the theft ring...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1908003/posts?page=32#32
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1908003/posts?page=46#46
There is a memo out by the Louisiana State Police on this.
Apparently, Wal-Mart employees are using cell phones to photograph the checks. So the memo is dated July 26, 2007, but this just recently happened to someone in South Louisiana (705xx zip code)...
So there is some other information on this scam on the web, and it is older information.
The memo starts out by saying:
Do not cash checks at Wal-Mart
The website says that it was not an authorized memo, but that it was being circulated internally in the State Government of Louisiana.
It is unclear if it was a semi-official memo or more of a bogus memo. In other words, the memo may be based on fact, or may be a lie fabricated by someone in the government (perhaps as a joke).
I guess the real problem is that Wal-Mart appears to use checks as EFT transactions and not as checks... At least according to the information in this website...
And it goes on to say that one should use credit cards or debit cards in lieu of checks for this reason.
My apologies...
In this era of identity theft, anyone still giving paper checks to someone they don’t trust needs to have their head examined.
The only checks I write are to my landlord. Even the government usually takes plastic these days - and debit/check cards work just fine if you don’t want to deal with debt on credit cards. And you can still keep track of your expenditures in your checkbook register.
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