Processing checks electronically is becoming a standard practice, brought about the Check 21 law, or ACH (Automated Check House) processes.
Electronic checks save businesses a lot of money in processing costs.
Walmart is one business taking advantage of electronic checks - and when a check is written to Walmart - it’s scanned in their point-of-sale system - then returned to the customer. From there, everything is handled “electronically.”
I read a story put out by KRTK Houston about a Walmart employee, who scammed a customer by keeping the check (supposed to be returned), then used it to purchase merchandise and gift cards numerous times.
KRTK Houston story with video presentation, here.
When the customer noticed the fraudulent transactions on her account, she reported it to the Walmart and the employee was arrested.
The story also indicates that there are other victims out there that haven’t been identified yet.
According to the story, the customer isn’t being made whole by her bank because she didn’t discover the transaction within thirty days and Walmart isn’t refunding her money, either.
When check fraud occurs, victims are normally made whole by their bank, who goes after the business by charging them back for the transaction. If a business refunds the customer for their losses, the customer might be able to have the transactions charged back to them, also.
My guess is that Walmart isn’t refunding the money because the bank still might charge-back the transactions to them?
Of note, it’s probably not completely fair that Walmart is the only one being mentioned in the article. There is no mention of what bank is involved. I hope Walmart and the bank have since sorted this whole thing out and taken care of the people, who were victimized as a result of this.
After all - it only makes sense to do so - processing checks electronically saves them a lot of money by not having to process paper and if more stories surface (like this one), it’s likely to affect “consumer trust.”
I read consumer tips all the time that we should use our credit cards versus debit cards because they offer better protection in the case of fraud.
Tom Fragala (CEO of Truston) wrote a great post about this, here.
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6 users commented in " Walmart Employee Scams Customers via Electronic Checks "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThanks for the tip Ed. Although my wife checks our account balance several times a month, I rarely do. I travel a lot and there are charges from around the world that have to be reconciled. We shop a lot at Wally World when I am home so we’ll have to remember to pay in cash or ATM card from now on.
The same thing just happened to me and my husband with wal mart keeping my check and yesterday 2 checks cleared my account from wal mart and 3 more atemps to run my checks. Someone printed checks with our information and now someone in Tx is trying to use them now. And it is all linked to a check I wrote to Wal Mart earlier this month. Please email me if anyone else out there is having the same problem.
Thanks
my email is nolady28@aol.com
I was a victim of unauthorized charges on my account, from a debit card. Guess where the charges were from? WALMART!! I am hearing more and more about this happening to people and the common denominator is always WalMart. I don’t know if it’s the people they have working for them (most likely) or what the deal is. But the common denominator is WalMart. I think boycotting WalMart until they can figure out a way to better screen their employees is a great idea. You get what you pay for!!
i went to walmart to a few weeks ago and spent about 40 dollars for household items. i checked my bank account like i normally do once a day and i had a charge to my account for 250.00 that i did not make. i then called the store and spoke to a manager who looked up my account transactions and told me that they did not have a record of the 250.00 charged to my account. i called my bank, and they told me that there was a charge on my account from walmart and i would have to wait 7 days because the charge was still pending. how can someone charge your card then have no record of that transaction. even though my bank told me that if the charge goes thru, that they woulg dispute it……im still mad because i should not have been charged it from the beginning. these people are doing something wrong and this is not the first time i have heard of them charging poeples card for charges they didnt make. i am no longer a walmart shopper!!!!!
Today a cashier at walmart in Cleveland Tn tried to scam me.
Luckily I was paying attention or she would have kept my change. Be careful of cashiers rambling on and on while making a transaction. they are trying to distract you so they can keep your change. She tried to say she gave me my change. I had to call a manager and they took her off the register and audited her drawer. Its a commom thing at walmart in Cleveland Tn. SO BE CAREFUL!!!
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