Here’s what Wachovia says:
Wachovia is committed to protecting your personal data as well as your money. Wachovia Security PlusSM combines a wide variety of fraud prevention programs, sophisticated analysis tools and backroom processes to pinpoint and analyze suspicious activity. This helps us detect and prevent fraud and reassure you that your personal and financial information, as well as your money is as safe online as it is at home, at the branch or over the phone.
Here’s what Wachovia does:
The Wachovia Corporation agreed on Friday to pay as much as $144 million to end an investigation that accuses the bank of allowing telemarketers to use its accounts to steal millions of dollars.
The settlement, one of the largest penalties ever demanded by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, concludes an 18-month inquiry into Wachovia’s relationships with schemes that investigators say stole from thousands of victims, many of them elderly.
Though Wachovia did not admit or deny wrongdoing, the investigation found that Wachovia, one of the country’s largest banks, engaged in unsafe practices — failing to conduct suitable due diligence, failing to monitor accounts used by telemarketers and failing to follow normal procedures that would probably have uncovered the thefts.
And then there’s this:
US justice authorities are investigating Wachovia Corp, one of the top five US banks, as part of a probe into Latin American drug money laundering, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
Wachovia is one of several large US banks being examined for relations with Mexican and Colombian money-transfer and foreign exchange firms directly involved in the laundering, the Journal said…
Miami court documents show that US agents have seized over 11 million dollars in 23 Wachovia accounts that belonged to the Mexican chain Casa de Cambio Puebla. US authorities suspected the money was the laundered funds of a drugs syndicate.
Are US corporate standards designed by gangsters? Or do they just naturally fall into that category?
I followed the two links. Still not “real” clear to me what was going on. I have a clue and I can guess. Anyone have some other links to walk us thru it?
I left Bank America when they would not guarantee that prior vendors (AOL and a travel club) could not automatically withdraw funds from my account. They said we were both customers and I had to work it out with them first. So, I closed all accounts.
Its also VERY irritating that the regulators who know the systems and have all the records don’t simply force the return of all stolen money to the accounts affected? Too much of “consumer protection” is that way. An illusion while big business continues to defraud.
Why is this such a surprise? Big business and government is, and always has been, nothing but organized crime.
I think many people are just now realizing such facts because of the ease of which information is spread on the Internet.
Hebrew Zionists bankers at work here?
Gold
Oil
Drugs
A bank’s product, is credit – that is the only thing they manufacture. A successful bank makes the cost of manufacturing reliable credit as low as possible. So in a World where credit is haemoraging, banks have to find every possible devious way to supplement their diminishing incomes. Selling customers’ information, is done by every retailer in the western world, why should the banks be excluded?
People are becoming aware, so they now fall for those “protection” schemes, like freecreditreport dot com which will suck every dime they can from your credit card, even after you cancel.
http://www.scambusters.org/freecreditreport.html
Or that site which advertises some bozo running around with his SSN painted on a a truck.
These guys are even worse than the banks — they’re using the bank’s bad reps to scam you.
Goes to show you success in life
You can put lipstick on an ugly girl ( or in this case a pig) and its still an ugly girl or a more greedy pig
So much for success in life
The most amazing part is that generally these people see themselves as most ethical , moral and great successes and role models in life
Wachovia never loses money due to identity loss from a customer. Any losses are charged back to the merchants. The name should should have been – Walkoverya.
this bank was first known as first national of north carolina. when congress/regulators opened up banking across state lines, they changed thier name to first union and competed with crosstown rival bank of america (originally known as ncnb). in 1998 first union bought “the money store” (2.1 billion), a subprime lender. it closed “the money store” a couple years later and had to write-off 1.7 billion. soon thereafter, first union bought wachovia bank for 12-13 billion. wachovia was based in winston-salem, nc and had a reputation as a solid, conservative bank that tried to grow internally in contrast to first union and bank of america. first union took wachovia’s name and ticker symbol and tried to pass it off as a merger, which it was not. which makes the picture of the pig with lipstick all the more appropriate.
Lots of $ are being converted into pesos. Immigrants from Mexico send part of their paycheck back home to relatives. American beach tourists; we’ve reached the end of the beach tourism season. So it is logical that a casa de cambio might have a lot of dollars. Maybe they’re waiting to balance the tuition fees to be paid by rich families on behalf of their kids in USA schools. Or Mexican summer vacations to Mount Rushmore. Or to buy a fleet of Caddies for some Pemex billionaire.
So there are alternative explanations to the one of “drug money laundering”. Here’s another one: maybe an American enterprise in the same business (currency exchange and money transfer) put the feds up to this, in order to take down a foreign competitor. I’m keeping an open mind.
#1
Agree.
It is really sad how big business sells out it’s customer’s at even chance it gets. Too bad. Sometimes I think we will self destruct before anyone else can do it.
It is really sad how big business sells out it’s customer’s at every chance it gets. Too bad. Sometimes I think we will self destruct before anyone else can do it.
I used to do customer service for Bank Of America, it is just as bad if not worse.
Isn’t this topic a powerful argument that concerned citizens should vote for Ralph Nader?
>>People are becoming aware, so they now fall
>>for those “protection” schemes, like
>>freecreditreport dot com
Aw, Mr Ray, you’re breaking my heart! Although I never used (and it’s unlikely that I WOULD use) freecreditreport dot com, I always thought that their adverts had some catchy tunes (“…so instead of rolling fly and driving phat, my legs are sticking to the vinyl and my posse’s getting laughed at”, and the one about selling chowder to tourists in tee shirts).
Bummer.
And it’s kind of ironic that the link you posted revealing the scam nature of these businesses has, right at the top of the page, an advert for (and link to) freecreditreport dot com. Heh. I guess any publicity is good publicity.
Walk all ovya is about the crummiest bank there is, except perhaps Bank of America. I’ve been a customer of both and naturally they both sucks.