Fearless Money

I have had an account with Washington Mutual for years. It is a good bank in the Northwest, with a lot of local branches and with absolutely free ATMs and online billpay. However, they just don’t know how to deal with Debit Card fraud.

It all started on September 24, when I got a call from Visa card services. They asked if I had just spend $1200 in Spain at “Alimentacion Nostacullera”. No, in fact I’d just had surgery and was at home recuperating. They told me they’d cancel the card, but that I should call my bank and get the amount refunded. That seemed odd. Why should I do that when they clearly were already on top of things. OK, I tried. No luck. The fraud department was not open on the weekend. This was at the end of the month, and luckily I had enough in the account to cover my mortgage even if the fraudulent transaction wasn’t refunded for a while. This was luck indeed, as there have been many months in the past where that would definitely would not have been true.

I called Washington Mutual immediately on the Monday following my first alert. They were very gracious, saying that they’d credit the account right away and that I’d need to fill out a fraud report. If I didn’t fill it out, the money would be re-deducted from my account. (This is illegal, from what I have been able to find out. Customers do not have to swear anything to chargeback. However, the whole debit card area is very loose and poorly regulated, so I may be wrong.) I did not get any fraud report sheet for two weeks! The “provisional credit” did appear in my account on October 3. I finally panicked and went to the bank to manually fill one out on October 14th. Technically, this is after the time they said I had to fill out the form, but they didn’t quibble.

Note that the debit card was closed immediately on the initial report. September 24 2005.

On my next checkbook balancing, October 14, I had a rude awakening. More charges on my account! These were odd ones. All of them were under $20. Example charges: $3.69 to A.C.E.S.A BRA MART BARCELONA, $14.84 to AUTOPISTAS AUMAR SVALENCIA. At that time there were 6 charges like this. I called Washington Mutual right away. Supposedly, these were charges that had been authorized before the card was closed. That sounded fishy, but I reported each charge and accepted it for the moment.

The charges continued. Approximately once every week or two, I got a string of charges. It would be four or five of them, always from $5-$25. I called Washington Mutual each time, and each time they acted surprised. They would start to say “was the card in your possession?” and I’d say “please look at the history in my account record.” “Oh” they’d say, when I would point out that the card was closed in September. Every time, I asked them how the thieves can be charging using a closed card. “They are forcing it through” repeated the clueless bank employees.

Most recently, I asked them “how long can this continue?” They had no answer. Then I asked them “how will you stop it?” They said they weren’t sure. I pointed out that with that combination, they are saying that I am potentially liable for an infinite amount of money for an infinite period. They had no response. I asked them how that could happen, and they explained “it is because your bank account is still linked to the number.” “So, unlink it” I said. The fraud specialist admitted that was a good idea, went away for ten minutes, and said it was done. That was November 14. I received “provisional credit” for everything reported on November 15th.

Imagine my lack of surprise at my most recent checkbook balancing. Twenty-two (!) new fraudulent entries. I’ll call tomorrow, but now I’m going to have to bite the bullet and change accounts, possibly even banks. It is a pity, and it will be such a huge hassle, since I am a fan of automated billpay, but I no longer believe they can or will do a thing to help me besides reluctantly issuing provisional credits.

Names of accounts used in the fraud:
A.C.E.S.A BRA.MARTBARCELONA
A.C.E.S.A BRA.TARBARCELONA
A.C.E.S.A BRA.TARRBARCELONA
A.C.E.S.A BRA.VENDBARCELONA
A.C.E.S.A GRANOLL-BARCELONA
A.C.E.S.A LA JONQ-BARCELONA
A.C.E.S.A SAL.ACC.BARCELONA
AUTOPISTAS AUMAR SVALENCIA
AUTOST CONFINE STAENZA
AUTST VENEZIA ESTZA TARV.
Alimentacion Nostacullera

Technorati Tags: Debit Fraud, scams, fraud, cons, Credit Fraud, Identity Theft, Spain