Bank Information Via Debit Card Number Check

Not a new trick but a persistent, and now expanding one:  illicit entry of your debit card or other bank number into a wire or wireless account verification machine in an attempt without authorization to acquire positive or negative banking information.  The accounting information is there in easy reach for a return of inquiries to the banking customer.  The wire/wireless verification agent is charged a fee for the service, and/or at least itemized by record for the inquiry. 

The practice usually involves a gang or independent individual learning your bank /debit card number.   Then it is checked for validity and debit availability.  Usually, a consumer check of these verification and information request attempts can open a pattern of criminal and attempted fraud behavior.  The abused practice is committed not the by proper use at bill payment or purchase with wire/wireless verification, but the by whim or malicious act of privacy invasion to check an account improperly.

The banking consumer, from his card issuer, needs a speedy record, via his card issuing agent of the access to his information; which he can cross-check against his personal card record use.  The existing law below  (Gramm-Leach-Biley Act) already provides the authority for this.  Its regulatory proposal and application is long overdue for crime fighting and identity theft and privacy invasion curbing.

The approach is preventive, as is the law providing for annual credit reports for consumers and businesses.  The abuse can be reported to local Chambers of Commerce, Better Business Bureaus, and taken to civil court for private litigation.

http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/glbact/glboutline.htm pondering credit style info disclosure reports to consumers,to combat invasive wire info by debit card number knowledge .