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Comment by Swizec | Hacker News Reader

On the other hand I log into my bank with my computer using the same browser as always and my username and password, but this time I'm in a different country. Even just a different Wi-Fi (like at a coffee shop)

And the bank _freaks out_. Omg omg omg hacking hacking! Quick to the 2FA mobile! Should we call you? Can we text you? Do you prefer email?

That's before we even get into how trigger happy they are about credit cards being used in weird ways. You buy one thing out of the ordinary (like a $3000 downpayment for a motorcycle) and immediately get 5 texts, 10 emails, and 2 phone calls. YO did you do that?

Or the one time my girlfriend deposited a physical cheque and it was so out of the ordinary the bank had a melt down and started shutting down all her accounts and blacklisting her from the bank.

I don't know about "sophisticated", but they definitely do something.

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You really want to work yourself into a frenzy about minor inconveniences, huh? You’re so hyperbolic here that you sound like you’re basically making stuff up.

> You buy one thing out of the ordinary (like a $3000 downpayment for a motorcycle) and immediately get 5 texts, 10 emails, and 2 phone calls. YO did you do that?

First, dropping 3 grand at a motorcycle dealership is extremely out of the ordinary for most people. Second, my money says you got exactly one text, one email, and either one or zero calls. It makes perfect sense that they’d want to do the fraud check here. It also makes sense that they’d use multiple means of contact to reach you quickly.

As for the girlfriend blacklisting story, I don’t know if you’ve just horribly mangled this story or what. It doesn’t make sense. If you deposit a check, there is no potential fraudulent withdrawal from your account. Also, a bank cannot randomly close your accounts and “blacklist” you. They are holding your money. Stealing money from your depositors is generally frowned upon from a regulatory standpoint.

I didn't understand the gist of the GP to criticize bank actions, but wanting to point out that banks do indeed have alarm systems in place beyond simple IP-change rules.

Some do. Many do not.

Yes it’s obviously hyperbole. My point was that banks do have security practices in place that go beyond weird password rules.

The girlfriend story unfortunately did happen. The part I left out was that the cheque bounced despite being from a reputable company – most likely an HR system glitch. This leaves the bank with 2 options: This person is doing something shady, or the big company that successfully pays thousands of cheques per day is being shady.

Guess which one the machine learning algos say is more likely :)

PS: when you sign the back of a cheque you become legally liable for that cheque not bouncing. If it does bounce, the law says you are committing fraud. The bank is therefore within their right to stop all service (they do send you your money back after killing your accounts)

That was a fun lesson to learn

Sometimes they make mistakes. My wife once went to the bank office to make some operation and they unexpectedly asked a "security question" about her father's given name - something they don't usually do (the standard practice is to ask for one's mother's maiden name). She gave the answer and they rejected it, and immediately locked down access to her account without her realizing it. She only found out when she couldn't log in to the on-line interface at home. Angry phone calls were made and situation was restored, but it took a day or two and was pretty stressful.

Speaking of countries, it might be worth it to let the bank know if you're going somewhere atypical. Before my work trip to China, I phoned the bank and told them I'm gonna be there from this to this date, and didn't have any problems with accessing my account (modulo one branch of ATMs not cooperating with my card).

At least they contact you these days. I remember my cards getting locked every Christmas and every time I went overseas due to "unusual spending patterns". Yes, it's Christmas. Yes, I am overseas, I bought the airline tickets with your card.

The airline charge won't tell them where you are going... My banks have an online tool to inform them of travel plans.

Sure, but back then it was an expensive international phone call to be on hold for 15 minutes and then talk to a person who said: your card was used overseas, looked suspicious.

They are costing me money to protect themselves.

A good heuristic might be that I spent 2000AUD on Qantas a couple of months ago.

And yeah, their ads showed people on the other side of the world using their cards. No mention of this sort of stuff.

I’m not sure that’s true. My credit card statements usually show the route (and maybe the date; I don’t recall) for airfare purchases. The format the statements use has led me to believe it’s more than the airline stuffing that data in the generic string that all transactions have.

Honestly, I'd rather my bank be too quick to notify me of weird activity and ask for my approval than the opposite. At the very least, it lets me know that they are paying attention. If someone were to steal from my bank account, I'd rather find out about it from the bank than when I next try to make a purchase.

>And the bank _freaks out_. Omg omg omg hacking hacking! Quick to the 2FA mobile! Should we call you? Can we text you? Do you prefer email?

That seems like a melodramatic way to say they asked you to authenticate by a second factor, which my banks do on any unregistered device.

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