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January 5, 2006
Help! Greenpeace ate my bank balance!
Well, not mine, fortunately. But some UK Greenpeace supporters woke up one morning to find a gaping hole where their bank balance used to be. Turns out a computer glitch tacked two extra zeroes onto the monthly donations people had arranged to have automatically debited from their accounts to support the environmental group. The result was a 100-fold increase in the debit amount going to Greenpeace. (Egads! How did my $25 donation suddenly become $2500?)
This example illustrates the risks of letting others control the money flowing into and out of your bank account. Direct deposit and direct debit both leave me cold.
Source: Error hits Greenpeace donations, BBC News, 12/30/05
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4567944.stm
Posted by Katherine Albrecht at January 5, 2006 10:10 AM