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.
15 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!!!
Thank you for the helpful information. I shop at Walmart, but conduct so many transactions at other locations and don’t have time to look at each transaction. I will pay better attention.
I just found 2 enormous transactions from my bank account. I called them and the check numbers aren’t anywhere close to the checks I use. Either they have a very incompetent accountant or else someone got ahold of my account info.
The rep said there was no check image because they were ACH debits. One from Walmart and the other from Old Navy (which I haven’t been to in months). I have no idea if they were in my town or somewhere else (I wish I had thought to ask but I was in shock).
This parasite (presuming it’s not just a bank error) took about 1000 dollars total. If this person is poor, they could go buy clothes from Salvation Army. I would bet it’s just some lazy blood sucking leech who would rather steal from others than get a job.
I’m going to do everything I can to help my bank catch him/her/them.
I don’t use ATM or check cards (solely because of all the risks involved) and also out of fear, try to avoid using credit cards unless there is no other choice.
Unless you use cash, apparently no transaction is ever safe.
My checking account was just hit for over $1000 with an ACH transaction from WalMart. Luckily I check my account often so I caught it within a day. I notified my bank and disputed the charge. Before they could even put the funds back in my account another charge came through, this time for over $1300.00 The only thing that saved me was that they overdrew my account the first time so the second transaction couldn’t go through.
I notified the Loss Prevention Officer at the store so they could go back and investigate. Hopefully they’ll find the employee and fire them. I’m also going to notify the police as well so hopefully they will put some pressure on the store.
I also closed that account since they obviously intend to keep hitting it.
Oh, forgot to mention that I live in TX and both of the fraudulent transactions took place at the WalMart store in Pena, IL!!
Just had two checks hit my account. Caught them within two days. My bank gave me some numbers but Wal Mart told me they didn’t know which store and they were not any help at all.
Had over 900.00 dollars took out of my checking account. It was a Wal Mart in TX. I live In TN. Bank statement shows it was done with a debit card. 8 different transactions in a row. 6 of them for the exact amount and all on the same day one right after the other. Done during the time me and my husband were both at work. My bank is checking into it. Don’t know how they did it. If anybody has any ideas, I’d like to know.
Had over 3,000.00 dollars took out of my checking account using my iformation from my bank debit card, two different wal-mart in Arlington,tx. 6 different transactions all in a row in less than 5 minutes, police got the surveillance video it showed a black female and black male subject and all the transactions were done by one checker. The female tried to use about 6 other cards all denied until she used mine and it worked. The checker has to be involved in this scam or at least a red flag should have come up in her mind!! The way I found out about it was we went to Pizza Hut and were denied for $14.00. So I called my bank and they asked if i had been to walmart in arlington. I’ve never been to that store!! I had the my debit card in my purse and so they stole my information from somewhere, I think they probably got it at a restaurant when i paid my tab and the waitress took my card to pay my bill. Three days later my stepson had his debit card hit for 2 transactions one for $400 and one for $70 also at a walmart in Cedar Hill, Tx. This is also close to the Walmart in Arlington.
You guys are all ridiculous. No one uses checks anymore so why are you? If you guys keep complaining about wal-mart, why do you keep going back? Fraud happens all the time, just because it happened to a few of you at wal-mart, doesn’t mean wal-mart is a bad place.
last week i recieved a almost $2000 check for walmart and it was suposed to go with a job for deal mark values. i had to activate and cash the check to do their “secret shopper” job they gave me. i sent everything they asked to prove i did the jobs and today i check my account balance and it was overdrafted the amount of the check. i called the number they gave me but its automated with no option to speak to someone and i have sent email after email and still no responce. What do i need to do.
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