[Coco] Re: Wikipedia in trouble

[David]

> On 29 Dec 2003, Neil Morrison wrote:
> 
> > Just Google "PayPal Sucks" and you'll see (41,300 hits). Basically it
> > removes all of your C/Card protections and gives them total control
> > of your bank accounts.

On Mon, Dec 29, 2003 at 12:43:23PM -0600, ostro011 wrote:
> Whoa !!  "Total control of your bank accounts"???  They do have the bank
> account information for funds transfer, same as credit card companies do
> when you pay your credit card bills electronically, but the PayPal user has
> to request the transfer.
> 
> Do you pay credit card bills electronically?  Do you file your taxes
> electronically?  Do you renew your license plates or tabs electronically? 
> I do all the above, and in each case you need to give your bank info to the
> company you wish to transfer the money.  Are you against all these forms of
> modern funds transfer?

I don't know anything about PayPal, but after what my bank told me -
assuming they knew what they were talking about - I'd be very afraid to
authorize electronic withdrawals for anyone.  I'll relate my experience,
remembering that all I have to go on is what _my_ bank told me, right or
wrong.

Back before the Internet, I had an account with Compuserve, among
others.  Not having a credit card at the time, the only way I could
subscribe was to authorize electronic payments for them with my bank.  I
did so and all went OK, I suppose.  When I cancelled, I realized that
there might be a lag time, so I let a couple of withdrawals go by after
that.  After that, I decided that they had to be caught up, so I went to
my bank to cancel my authorization for them.  Here's what they told me..
I had to issue a stop payment order for the amount of the base dues -
$9.95 at the time.. BUT! they told me, that all CIS would have to do
if they tried to collect and got a rejection would be to change the
amount by as little as 1 cent and it would be processed.  They then
asked me if I had anyone else who was doing automatic withdrawals - I
didn't - so they simply pulled my automatic withdrawal authorization, or
whatever it would be called.  So I assume now that I'm in the clear.

This doesn't make a lot of sense.  It looks like if entity X was
authorized to make a-w's, they could do so, and if they weren't
authorized, then they couldn't.  It seems to me that all I should have
had to do was go in and say, "CIS no longer is authorized to make
a-w's", and maybe sign something. But from the way they talked to me,
if I go in and authorize X to do a-w's and Y finds out about it,
then Y can come in and start taking money out for themselves.

Maybe I was just talking to someone who didn't know what they were
doing, or my bank isn't very knowledgable in these things, but if they
are on track, then this system doesn't sound very secure at all.