That occurred in February 2011, and he is still waiting for the bank to return his funds.

More and more banks are shifting away from taking the hit from fraudulent activity, moving towards sharing the fraud loss with the customer.  Some banks now refer to fraud as a “shared responsibility” between their financial institution and their customer.  That makes sense, as account holders should have measures in place to minimize their losses from fraud.   However, fraud can still occur even with the best of controls.

In the latest update on debit cards,  Bank of America and other banks recently announced they will begin charging bank debit card users a monthly service fee.  According to news reports, Bank of America plans on charging $5.00 per month for the privilege of using a bank debit card, while other banks are planning on charging lower amounts. (here’s the URL to a good article – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/business/banks-to-make-customers-pay-debit-card-fee.html).

Bank debit cards are readily targeted and sought by fraudsters as they provide direct access to victims’ funds.  If successful with your account, you, the victimized debit card holder, will be at the mercy of your bank to replenish your funds into your account.

My position on bank debit cards has remained unchanged.  Save yourself the aggravation and now any monthly fees.  Loose your debit card, and return to a classic credit card along with a stand-alone ATM card.

And as always, remain vigilant in monitoring your bank and credit card statements and activity regularly.

In my experience it has been difficult if not impossible to have a convicted embezzler see the inside of a jail cell.  If sentencing has included any jail time at all, it was common for the term to be very minimal, and frequently it was served at a half-way house or equivalent.  “We have limited space in our prisons, and we need that space for the violent criminals” is a common response I have heard, not that I could argue with that logic.

But still, I truly believe the level of theft and embezzlement is where it is today because individuals no longer fear the consequences of their actions, meaning they don’t perceive their chance of going to jail as being realistic if they steal large amounts of money from their employers or anyone else for that matter.  In sentencing I have experienced in my cases, I can’t argue with that either.

So, much to my surprise, when I saw that a woman was convicted and sentenced to twenty (20) years in jail for embezzling $408,500, an amount less than a million dollars, I took notice.  I have had individuals convicted of stealing well over a million dollars and receive a fraction of what Ms. Mattoon received.

I am by no means saying I believe someone who embezzles should not be appropriately punished for their actions, because I firmly believe there should be genuine consequences for stealing any amount of money.  I am seeking, though, some level of consistency in the sentences received by individuals convicted of embezzling, so that we can see the perceived and genuine risk of going to jail return, reducing the frequency of occurrence for victims of these crimes.

I am just trying to equate embezzling with twenty years.  Do you think someone who stole $408,500 should have received a prison sentence of twenty years?

Here’s the URL link to the story:

http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=13853352

A small charge, an amount under a dollar up to a few dollars, appears on your credit card statement.  Due to the insignificance of the amount, you don;t bother spending any time trying to figure out what it was for, and having it reversed off your account.  You try and recall where the charge could have come from, perhaps an adjustment to a legitimate purchase.

I never thought much about thieves stealing million of credit card accounts, and simply charging a few dollars to each stolen account.  But as it turns out, that’s exactly what they do, and a few dollars charged to millions of accounts, results in millions of dollars.

I went home that night and checked my credit card statements, and sure enough, I found these insignificant charges on my account.  The total of them do not warrant my doing anything about it, but they are there.  I’ll bet if you look, you’ll find them on yours as well.

Here’s the link to an article where the FTC just busted a very organized ring was stealing credit card accounts and doing this very scheme.

As I read the instructions it dawned on me that we used our credit and debit cards in many different contexts beyond store purchases, gas purchases, red box terminals and ATM machines.

At the airport I had to use a credit card to retrieve my boarding passes – the airlines call it “self-service” checkin.  Nothing self-service about it, we had to get in line both ways due to system issues.  I wondered what system was behind the self-service terminals that hundreds of thousands of travelers insert their credit card into every traveling day, and more importantly, what safeguards were in place to protect my card information from skimming or theft.

The safe in our room had two options – enter a private code or swipe a credit card on the reader.  The same card used to close the safe would be required to be swiped to re-open the safe.  I wondered what systems were behind the safe tracking my credit card information, and more importantly, who had access to my card information when I swiped.  I chose to enter a four digit code, as I had no way of knowing if dishonest employees could access all the cards swiped on the room’s safe.  And then I wondered how many safes were in this one hotel – hundreds.  In all the rooms in all the hotels in the US alone – thousands…

An individual attending one of my sessions in Miami asked me what I suggested for a replacement to using debit and credit cards due the high incidence of skimming.  She asked if we should switch back to cash only.  I responded that if we did that, the number of personal robberies would certainly increase.

The solution if to be prudent where you use your credit card, monitor your card’s activity, loose your debit card (and switch to a credit card), and remain vigilant.

I came across a frightening image.  It was a picture of a redbox movie rental station, focused in on the credit card swipe area.

Much to my surprise I learned the folks stealing our credit card and debit card information have been installing their card skimming devices onto redbox stations.

If you are a redbox user like myself, you need to start watching for signs to ensure that a skimming device has not been added to the redbox station you use.

Here is the URL to the redbox image to help show you what to look for:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Y5Wj_eMCNq4/SFx15mMbAoI/AAAAAAAAAYU/OegMqgrtUCI/s1600/redbox.jpg

Today, for instance, I received a booklet of courtesy checks at my home.  These courtesy checks are linked to a corporate credit card I maintain for my firm.  All the information regarding the account pertains to the business: firm name, address, phone number… My monthly statements go directly to the firm address, as does all communications regarding the account – rightfully so – that’s the way I set up the corporate account.

So why then would this well-known, highly publicized card issuer send unsolicited courtesy checks to my personal residence that were prepared using my name (not the firm’s name) and my personal residence address (not the firm’s address) to be drawn against my account, when I would not be expecting such checks???

A few years back we had an experience with bank fraud.  In closing a relative’s estate a savings account was opened to accumulate any funds for estate purposes.  No checks were requested or issued, and no debit card was requested.  Simply a bank account to accumulate any funds until the estate was distributed.  So how surprised were we when we received a call from the fraud unit of the bank alerting us to potentially fraudulent activity on the account using a debit card???  Turns out the bank on it’s own accord issued a debit card on the savings account, and sent it to an old address used more than twenty years ago.  The current residents of that address received a windfall when the debit card arrived out of the blue in their mail – unbeknown to us.

Seems to me that although the credit card companies complain they fall victim to fraudulent activity and suffer the losses, their own actions in some part (perhaps a large part) contribute to fraud and could have been prevented if they simply stopped sending out unsolicited information (or worse courtesy checks) to cardholders not expecting the materials.