The Security Mentor

You'll find an article in the archives here which raises the question of whether banks will refuse to reimburse customers for online fraud.

Banks are already starting to balk. Miami businessman Joe Lopez checked his online banking account last April and felt horror when he found an unauthorized $90,000 wire transfer to Latvia. Bank of America has said they did everything right and he's just stuck. The Latvian bank still has $70,000 of the money but they've frozen it. Bank of America won't intervene with Latvia because, they say, they didn't lose any money.

Lopez runs a 5-person company. That's a lot of money. He's had to take out a home equity loan to keep the business going.

So, what can you do?

You're still prudent if you keep your online banking account. Online banking has some real security advantages. You can check activity daily and spot fraud faster and you get less sensitive material in your physical mailbox. Nobody knows how this particular security breach happened but I'll bet it was something routine. Practice good hygiene and swing your business to a bank that has a policy of covering fraud losses and/or has advanced security like one-shot passwords.