Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2002 19:34:17 -0400
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: What were those people thinking?
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> ronkean at juno.com wrote:
>
>>Perhaps for some it was a slippery slope.  Overdrawing one's account
>>by a little bit could have been an innocent mistake, and once they
>>noticed that repeated withdrawals from their already overdrawn
>>account could be made, some might have figured that it was 'O.K.',
>>that it was no more illegal than 'maxing out' a credit card.
>
> Is it possible that it was entirely an innocent mistake?  Perhaps some
> people just don't keep track of their accounts, and rely on the bank
> to tell them when they're overdrawn.
>
> I'd be very reluctant to impose criminal penalties on anyone unless
> there was overwhelming evidence that they knew they were doing
> something wrong.

My understanding is that this is exactly what they're doing.  Most of
the overdrafts were small, and those people are being told to give back
the money, with no other penalties.  Most of the actual dollars lost was
to people who overdrew their accounts by thousands of dollars.  Those
folks are in trouble.

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."