[TriLUG] OT: lack of security at BofA

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

On Sun, 21 Dec 2014, Justis Peters wrote:

> It's a calculated risk. They have budget assigned to cover the losses on 
> fraud. Their bureaucracy adapts only when a pattern emerges which creates a 
> risk of loss they can't afford to cover.

This is what I've heard too. The numbers show that fraud must cost them a lot.

BofA lost $1000 in an hour yesterday on my account. If BofA charges the vendor 
2% (I don't know how much it is, but this will do for the moment. Assume a 
spherical credit card). I will need to run 50k$ through this card for them to 
make the money back. This will take me about 5yrs. BofA sends me a new card with 
a new number about every year, because of fraudulent activity on my card. I 
expect they're making a loss on me.

As Steve says, they should have got a bigger bailout.

Tim at Intrex says that people make cards up once they have your info. My card 
has a chip in it, which is supposed to prevent duplication. However I find from 
wikipedia that this chip is an alternative to the magnetic stripe rather than in 
addition to the stripe and is not in common use in the US

Joe

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