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posted by Fnord666 on Friday September 13 2019, @10:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the who-needs-a-payroll dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

NY Payroll Company Vanishes With $35 Million

This communique came after employees at companies that depend on MyPayrollHR to receive direct deposits of their bi-weekly payroll payments discovered their bank accounts were instead debited for the amounts they would normally expect to accrue in a given pay period.

To make matters worse, many of those employees found their accounts had been dinged for two payroll periods — a month’s worth of wages —leaving their bank accounts dangerously in the red.

The remainder of this post is a deep-dive into what we know so far about what transpired, and how such an occurrence might be prevented in the future for other payroll processing firms.


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  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday September 13 2019, @08:18PM (4 children)

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday September 13 2019, @08:18PM (#893834)

    That is how our financial system works. Any company with access to your bank account and routing number can empty out your account. The banks will be able to reverse all the charges, no employee will have to take the hit for this; but they will make it as bit of a hassle for the victims as possible, because that is what banks do.

    Any individual with those two pieces of information can print a check with a name of a fake id and write paper checks against our account. Don't write a paper check against an account unless you are willing to go through the annoyance of that account being emptied out.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday September 13 2019, @09:35PM (3 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Friday September 13 2019, @09:35PM (#893861) Journal

    So the problem is that the US are still stuck deeply in the past? Here in Europe, nobody would even consider writing a check these days (actually, I'm not even sure if you still can).

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday September 13 2019, @10:23PM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Friday September 13 2019, @10:23PM (#893880) Journal

      Maybe. When I want cash I go to my bank, ask for a counter check, write in my name, account number, amount, and make it out to cash. Then they give me cash and only my bank has the check -- anyone at the bank is supremely capable of messing with any account they want so I don't see that as excessively risky. I haven't had a debit card in maybe 20 years now. I get that there are protections of some sort when you use one, but the problem starts with your account getting being debited and you trying to get that fixed. Just seemed like an unnecessary risk to me. For card based transactions I use a credit card -- that way if someone uses it illegally, the problem starts at the bank and while a hassle, at least I still have all my cash in the meantime.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by legont on Saturday September 14 2019, @12:59AM

      by legont (4179) on Saturday September 14 2019, @12:59AM (#893938)

      All it takes is a short text message known as SWIFT with an easily remembered code 101.

      P.S. If one wants to make it more efficient, 102 transfers multiple accounts.

      P.P.S. No, it is not encrypted.

      --
      "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Saturday September 14 2019, @03:42PM

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Saturday September 14 2019, @03:42PM (#894082)

      So the problem is that the US are still stuck deeply in the past?

      This is for certain. And the financial stuff is only the tip of the iceberg.

      --
      "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh