Wachovia Bank Has New Way To Scam

March 2, 2008 

The Facts 

Recently Wachovia Bank was exposed of knowingly helping fraudulent telemarketers scam millions of dollars from their customers, and receiving commissions from those telemarketers. Now we have learned that they have at least one other policy that does the same thing without any outside help. 

My View 

This past week I visited my elderly sister in Atlanta Georgia, who banks with Wachovia. She is 90 years old and still has a very sharp mind. While visiting with her, she asked me to take her to the bank to attend to some financial business. As it turned out, Wachovia had recently closed several branches in the area and consolidated them all into one new building. Not being familiar with the area, I called the new office to get directions. When I dialed the number, I got a voice recording that welcomed me to Wachovia then told me that all lines were busy. The recording went on to tell me that I could call back later, OR for a $1.25 charge, I could be put on hold and wait for the next available line. Naturally, I hung up and called back later, at which time I was able to get through. I supposed at this time, all the lines were not busy.  

About ten years ago, there were a few banks that tried out a new way to charge their customers immoral fees. The idea was obviously an attempt to cut back on their staffing by limiting personal customer contact. The policy was to charge their customers a fee if the customer came into the bank to conduct their business with a bank employee. For example, if the customer walked into the bank to make a deposit into, or withdrawal from, their account, the customer would be charged a fee for each transaction. The idea was to force all their customers to use ATM’s and drop boxes for this type of business. There was such an outcry from the public and radio talk shows that the banks dropped that policy immediately.  

There was a time that all we had to worry about was the “official” scam artist taking our money. Now I guess we have got to be on guard against the so-called “fine and up standing” community businesses.