Warning: Bank of America Giving Access to Random Accounts

Posted on Sep 24, 2012 by rasengan

Today, we received an invoice for one of our expenses. To send the payment, I logged into Bank of America’s website to use their ACH (Automated Clearing House) system.  Once logged in, I was able to click on the ‘Transfers’ button.  Up until this point, everything was fine and I was viewing my own account.  However, after entering the transfer interface, I ran into a huge privacy issue that should have never occurred in an online banking session:  I was looking at someone else’s name, bank accounts, balances, e-mail address and more.

I have attached screenshots (with some information redacted) and have also e-mailed the bank reporting the issue.  I am definitely not WATSON, and these are not my bank account numbers or bank account balances.  It’s possible* that had I gone through with this payment it would have come out of WATSON’s account and not mine.

Logging out and logging back in seemed to fix the issue and I haven’t been able to reproduce it since its first occurrence.

BofA Communication

BofA Transfer

Here is the letter to which we have not yet received a response:

BofA Email

[Awaiting Response.]

This is a serious privacy issue that needs to be addressed.  If I can see someone else’s information, doesn’t that mean someone can see yours or mine?

Llama Stare

* Some readers pointed out that it is possible but not clear and the text has been updated for this purpose.

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17 Comments

  1. Sam Dlg

    I’ve seen this happen too! probably 4 months ago

    12 years ago
  2. Jason

    ಠ_ಠ

    12 years ago
  3. Anthony

    Someone should tell them not to write cookies on cached images.  

    12 years ago
  4. John

    ಠ_ಠ

    12 years ago
    1. Jaded Jesse

       This is TOTALLY FUCKED UP.   I want my money out of there NOW.

      12 years ago