[HacktionLab] Issues with publishing bank details and direct debits.

[Adelayde Skidmore]

Hi All,

Can't find the original email, nor what list it was on, but I wanted to
post a follow up to an issue that was mentioned to do with not posting
bank details to the web.

Well, at the time, I spoke to a bank, possibly HacktionLab's bank to
clarify the situation.  They told me that a direct debit couldn't be set
up without authorisation by the account holders.

Lo and behold, what's happened is that for another project we've had
someone do just that.

They got our account details from some where, probably the web site, and
were able to set up a direct debit to a third-party company using their
name.  This person was NOT one of the authorised account signatories.

When I contacted the bank about it, they refunded the direct debits.  I
also queried with them, how this could have happened.

There's a system the banks use called AUDDIS, and this system instructs
them to set up direct debits.  So the perpertrator set up a direct debit
with a 3rd party in their personal name, but using the organisation in
question's bank details, and the bank just accepts it.

There is no mechanism by which you can request that the bank not accept
direct debit set up requests, nor is there a mechanism by which you can
request that they be authorised by account signatories.  At least that's
what this bank, Unity Trust, said.

They said to me that the best idea was to not publish the account
details, and I pointed out that they would be in various emails, given
over the phone, on invoices, card receipts, all sorts of things.  I feel
that this mechanism totally sucks; it's a bit like signing a whole
chequebook full of blank cheques and then leaving them around town....
except, that it's not, as with AUDDIS, as the transactions aren't
authorised by the account holders, the money has to be refunded as soon
as one of them says it wasn't authorised - you wouldn't be able to get
the money back from the cheques.

Anyone else had similar experiences, or had a different story from their
bank?

Cheers,

Mike.

p.s. to whomever it was that said that this was an issue, to which I
poo-pooed it, whilst getting a bank (Lloyds TSB) to back me up, I humbly
apologise.

-- 
--
adelayde at riseup.net
https://we.riseup.net/adelayde