Friday, May 30, 2014

Wal-Mart Running a Cheque Scam Racket, Stealing from Customers

This started for me May 26 at 4:4am when a perp walked into the first of 2 Walmarts to cash fraudulent checks for purchases.  The checks were fakes and were processed electronically by the Walmart cashier. 
The cashier keyed in the fake driver’s license number and the thief left with $350 dollars in merchandise and the checks they faked as the cashier gives the scanned check back to the perp at the completion of the transaction. 
The transactions hit my checking account May 28th.  I disputed the charges with my bank that were scanned at the store by Telecheck and approved.  I have now filled out a police report and a fraud report at both of the Walmarts involved.  
Walmart will not cooperate with victims in any way as a matter of policy.  Only the police can get any information from them.  I was able to coerce copies of the receipts from a willing office clerk who felt sympathetic to my plight. (Her name is withheld as Walmart would probably fire her if they found out she was helpful)  Video surveillance is kept for no more than 90  days by the store so act fast once you notice the fraud.  Pray that the perp does not bounce the check as Telecheck and Walmart will gang rape the fraud victim by making it so no check from that account can be cashed anywhere by the legitimate account holder as they fight to clear their good name.  Telecheck will allow a report amendment to correct the negative notation, but oddly enough Walmart refuses to issue the correction letter as they do not do that as a matter of policy.  
Again the effort expended by Walmart management is to limit the resources spent on this type of issue and to screw the customer once more.  The last action item was to file a complaint with the FTC.  My complaint however is against Walmart as they are the ones that have allowed this uncontrolled security breach to continue without resolution or correction since before 2007 when the fraud practice was first detailed.
Walmart / Telecheck solution:  Add a small print scanner to the register to scan the driver’s license of the person submitting the check and print it on the back of the check.  Then of course don’t give the check back to the thief.  Then at least you have a picture of the a*sh#le committing the crime.  Walmart security cameras look like they were purchased at Walmart made in China. 
I realize that there will be little satisfaction beyond this rant.  If it helps one person save a little time not having to go through this BS then it was worth it.  It is getting increasing difficult to ever find a responsible person that has the authority to correct glaring issues like these.  Corporations have become effective at compartmentalizing every aspect of their organization and processes in an effort to stop internal collusion and corruption.  The downside fall out of this is the total lack of accountability of organizations to make the necessary course corrections to process that are either inadequate, ineffectual or just plain out of date.  To be able to correct these issues a group of individuals needs to be tasked with looking at processes from cradle to grave to better understand its strengths, weaknesses and dynamic interactions.  If this type of higher altitude systemic analysis didn’t work then we would have no need for CEOs or their inflated salaries.