I am opening this thread to sound a note of warning to those who buy and sell online and have their account numbers pasted on their websites. Pls be careful. Tighten your security and verification process before delivering your services. As I write this now my accounts at Oceanic bank and GTB are frozen and am being investigated by police after spending time in detention. You know what that means, loss of business, loss of money, embarrasment.

As one who have over 5 websites where i buy and sell services and products of different types i did not know how some boys decided to either set me up or use my account numbers to send people. i can only confidently say that there is no deposit in my account that was not for a service that i fully delivered or working on delivering. Since this case is still being investigated i cannot go into details of what happend but to plead with my fellow web markers to tighten their verification. If you are one of our clients whose service have not been fully delivered, please contact us and exercise patience. i have also set up a blog (not a fine one) to speak against yahoo yahoo. If you have time please make a contribution at the blog. the blog is www.stopyahooyahoo.com

Hmm, na wa o.

If they have done what you said they have done, please take heart and exercise faith and patience. Vengeance is of the Lord. We have serious issues in our country. Only God can solve them for us, since we as a nation has refused to do so.

Take heart bro. .

Meanwhile talking about the project, count me in.

Mail me slyrox2[at]gmail[.]com , got some suggestions.

My dear, you are talking with your mouth half open. What for were you arrested? What for are you being investigated?

Nobody can do anything with your account name and number without your collaboration. I have been doing web business since 2000; nothing has happened top my personal and corporate account on account of my online activities which I am not aware. My worst case was when I had people who paid in third party cheques to me and later requested refunds. I simply told them to get the refund from the third party as that is to whom I will make the refund. No case. No sweat.

Please do not give online business a bad name. Apply wisdom in your dealings and keep your nose clean. If you consent to scam and get burnt, do not blame it on Internet business, blame yourself. If money is paid to your account and you claim the money, do you say you are not a part of it? Fill in the blank spaces,

I do no believe this your story, u are not sure of what you said here or is it that the info is incomplete

This is your story is a bit muddy. What interest does someone really have in using your account, afterall they can't get the money in any way except you doing ecurrency exchange biz. If that is the case then you were walking contrary to the agreement entered by E-currency exchangers on verification before funding. Anyway since I don't know the whole story, I can't really say anything.

The info is rather not detailed at all - and the poster did not properly hint us on what to avoid.
Now, i am not aware that a bank account number is meant to be kept under lock and key.

There are gazzillions of companies both offline and online that have been doing transactions
with their bank accounts nah?

@EquityPal & dhtml:
Imagine this:
Yahoo guy scams someone using your company name and gets a cheque which he deposits into your company account listed on ur site.
He calls your company that he paid for facebook advert or adwords or SMS or some intangible online service and gives the cheque drawer's name as depositor.
You verify and you give him the service.

That's serious trouble for you man. The authorities are gonna come after you, check ur records and find the drawer's name, check your account and find the payment.

Thats how it can happen. It happened to me once but thank God the issue was resolved amicably.

By the way, I just logged in with my second id here since i tried to change email of the first id and have not gotten a confirmation email to continue. Pls mods, is there anything wrong with the email system of NL

Sly, I sent u a mail

Equitypal, Count your blessings in the days of ignorance but now be wise as a serpent

*dhtml , The matter is being investigated, so you do not expect details from me. Re-read my post

JAVAclinic , You just spoke like a kid

lojik , Right on. Experience they say is a great teacher


I repeat, if you sell products or services online, and have your account numbers pasted everywhere, start including some form of verification.

This is very interesting. . . .

Example of how this can happen.
Case study (ecurrency exchanger site)

Eccurency site exchanges Liberty Reserve (LR) for Naira. Say 160 Naira per LR Dollar
Scammer goes to site and fills the order form for 1500 LR. Which is 240,000 Naira.
Scammer kidnaps someone child and asks for ransom of 240,000 Naira.
Scammer gives parents ecurrency site's bank details to pay the money into.
Parents confirm deposit, scammer notifies ecurrency site of payment.
Ecurrency site funds scammers LR (one-way, no chargebacks or refunds on LR transfers)
Parents get their pikin, go to police with ecurrency site's bank details . .
The police. . . watch out for part 2.

DC,

Your movie story tells it all, except the kdnapping aspect

I love the kidnapping aspect of the thing jare.

You see, what i will like to ask parents for is that: why can they not call the FBI or CIA depending
on the case sha - and report the case to them and also give them the bank account number.

Then the intelligence people can:
- Get more info from ecurrency exchanger site
- look for kinapper's BB Pin
- Whatch out for part 2.5

But wtf? this is naija city, we only have PDP and BOKO ruling the country!

interesting

So what form of verification do you suggest?

bros12345:


I repeat, if you sell products or services online, and have your account numbers pasted everywhere, start including some form of verification.

bakenda:

So what form of verification do you suggest?

Do not put up your bank account details on your site.
Ensure the bank account details can only be seen in an invoice or in a customer's mailbox only after a successful order.
Insist and ensure the depositor name should contain the unique invoice or order ID.
Use a sane Bank.

Ofcourse this won't out-rightly stop this means of fraud but it will reduce it to a minimum.
I learned most of these from a client when I was building his ecurrency exchange site (ecashshop.com). Their business is the worst hit.

Our verification is simple.
If you pay with a name other than your registered username or full name, then you must provide a form of nationally accepted I.D or wait 3 days before getting acknowledged.
It does not entirely solve the problem, but it reduces it because most people will call under 24 or 48 hrs after payment so if you scam someone, the person had better report to us under 72hrs.

There are situations where we have delayed acknowledgement for up to 5 days because the depositor paid in a Nigerian name other than his/her own.

Someone once paid in a third party cheque and came to our office in person for part refund that he didnt intend to pay that much. We dragged the issue for almost 10 working days and made copies of his driver's license before issuing the refund. We also issued a crossed cheque.

Any ecurrency doing business without verification is on his own.
what you need is a passport photograph, utility bill and nationally accepted I.D.
Get all your prospective custmers to register and provide these during registeration before processing any transaction.