The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has settled charges with Wachovia Bank, directing the bank to issue checks to consumers that may have been harmed by payment processors for telemarketers that had account relationships with the bank.
As a result of this action, the bank will issue checks totaling over $150 million to more than 740,000 consumers.
The payment processors and telemarketers involved were Payment Processing Center LLC; FTN Promotions Inc. dba Suntasia Inc.; Netchex Corp. and Your Money Access LLC and related companies, according to the OCC.
The practices cited by the OCC in the settlement involved the use of remotely created checks, or RCCs, by payment processors for telemarketers that maintained account relationships with the bank, charged the OCC.
[An RCC is a check that is not created by the accountholder and does not bear the accountholder’s signature. Instead, the signature block of the check includes text such as “authorized by your depositor, no signature required,” according to the OCC].
The telemarketers allegedly obtained bank account information over the phone by offering consumers a range of questionable products and services. With the account information obtained during the call, the telemarketer would allegedly direct the payment processor to create a remotely created check.
The payment processor would then deposit the remotely created check into the processor’s account at Wachovia, and funds were then withdrawn from consumers’ accounts to make payment on the check and deposited into the processor’s account, continued the OCC.
A large percentage of these RCCs were returned to Wachovia by individuals, or their financial institutions, who said the checks were never authorized or that they had never received the products or services offered by the telemarketers, according to the OCC.
The checks from Wachovia are being mailed to consumers by the U.S. Court Settlement Administrator. They are legitimate and should be cashed or deposited, according to the OCC.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has settled charges with Wachovia Bank, directing the bank to issue checks to consumers that may have been harmed by payment processors for telemarketers that had account relationships with the bank.
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