Unauthorized Bank Withdrawals
Complaint
B Maguire
Country: United States
On 12/06/2009, a "debit purchase" from TWX AOL SERVICE was charged to my checking account in the amount of $51.80. This is not a withdrawal I authorized or a purchase I made. I have never been a paying customer of AOL.
Comments
Stolen credit card or debit card numbers are often tested, or "pinged", by attempting to use them for intangible services, such as internet accounts like AOL or NetZero, that allow a purchase without a shipment to a physical address.
If those charges go through, the thief knows the account is valid and may proceed to run up charges for what they really want as fast as they can. Since AOL also allows its users to do purchases from AOL affiliate marketers and charge to the payment method on record, this can also provide a way for a thief to run up charges to buy products from companies other than AOL.
As with all fraudulent charges, immediately contact your bank to dispute the charges and close the account to prevent additional fraud and theft. Your bank should be able to reverse the charges, but only if you dispute immediately, under FRB Reg. E, which applies to consumer checking accounts. You may need to send your bank a written dispute or fraud affidavit to invoke your FRB Reg. E dispute rights.
It is not clear whether the charge was run through using a debit card number, or your checking account number. You would want to find this out from your bank, since if it is your debit card number, you could dispute and block just that, but if the thief used your checking account number you will want to both dispute it and close the account to prevent additional fraud.
In the future, reduce your risk by blocking all debit or check cards, and do not provide your checking account number to anyone, whether for "phone checks" or "automatic debits". Use only ATM cards requiring a PIN for use at ATM machines owned by your bank.
Use checks only to pay companies you already know and trust, such as utility companies, credit card companies, mortgage, rent, etc.
Use credit cards for all other on-line or retail purchases, since their fraud protections are better than debit cards or checking accounts, and they are easier to block when fraud occurs.
Christmas is prime fraud season, when people or companies who engage in making fraudulent charges attempt to benefit from the higher levels of payment activity to get away with their thefts.
We live in a world also populated by thieves, and it pays to control your risk of theft and fraud.
Merry Christmas!
Contact your bank immediately to dispute all unauthorized charges, and close the account due to fraud to prevent additional fraudulent charges.
In the future, never authorize automatic charges to your checking account. Use only credit cards for such purposes, as the security and fraud protections are better, both due to federal law, and because the banks treat it as their own money at risk.