Hiding in the Backwaters Just one more blog on the net.

AARRRRRGGGG!!!

I got on-line this morning to make a credit card payment only to discover that my checking account was in the red by $233. I'm the sort of person who usually knows to within $100 what my checking account balance is. Since I was expecting a number closer to a positive $1400, it goes with out saying I was somewhat taken aback.

Pulling up my transaction history I found 11 ATM transactions totaling about $1900, transactions I absolutely did not make.

Obviously I'm upset about having been robbed in this way, but what really irritates me is the bank did not catch it and stop it. I've done enough work with e-commerce to know what kinds of behavior will trip fraud alarms and prevent a transaction from completing. I also know that most fraud detection is done by third party vendors, but occasionally the bank itself will refuse a transaction. What happened to my account is classic fraudulent behavior: multiple transactions in a short span of time—probably less than 12 hours, certainly less than 24—several with identical transaction amounts.

In the past VISA has called me based on purchase patterns they found suspicious. I swim with a local team and usually buy my speedos from a company in Australia. Once I happened to also purchase CDs from BMG on the same day which shows up as New York. Independant purchases in far flung locales is indeed a trigger a fraud alert, but still within the realm of possibility in today's cyber world and no where near as suspicious what happened this time.

What gives? Am I to assume Washington Mutual doesn't have basic fraud detection procedures in place? I don't know enough about the relationship between banks and their debit cards and the credit card companies to know where I should direct my frustration. I've been largely happy with Washington Mutual, but this is definitely raising questions about whether or not I wish to continue banking there. We'll see if they manage to assuage my concerns before this is all over.

UPDATE:

WaMu did resolve things in fairly short order. It took them four business days to give me a provisional credit, pending resolution of the inquiry. I was told it could take up to 45 days to resolve the matter. I had a letter making the provisional credit official two days later. Not bad. Still bugged more wasn't done to stop it, but in the end, I guess it's their money that was stolen. I guess I should let it go.