From: Mike N. 

On Tue, 8 May 2007 14:17:37 -0500, "Glenn Meadows"
 wrote:

>Read this poor ladies plight to see what bad shit you can get into with ID
>Theft..
>
>http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/05/id_thief_bounce.html#posts

   This story is more about incompetence and greed of a large faceless
corporate institution.    Internally, they refer to "Free Checking"
accounts as "Fee checking" because of the enormous profit margins
they get off miscellaneous fees.   BOA's system was set up to maximize
those fees.

   The original point of theft may have been as simple as guessing an
account number, as outlined below

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/05/scammers_randomly_target_che
ck.html

  Although BOA randomizes account numbers so that they cannot be guessed,
all their account # slots are "full" - they are actually
recycling account numbers.   It's possible to open an account and the
previous owner who
closed the account several years ago may begin writing checks on it.

   The security of the whole ACH system is laughable - it badly needs to be
overhauled.   As the Wash Post article points out, it was originally
accessible only be financial institutions , but now anyone can access it -
with the fiasco today resulting from open access.   Anyone with your
account # can drain it.   Logically, you should have to pre-authorize
anyone before they could draft your account.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5