Gordon Fitch <gcf at panix.com> wrote: >
> > Some discreet kiting should suffice to provide the required
> > decent interval and "attempts to pay off".
Daniel Davies:
> Don't even think about it. One of the less dubious
> "productivity improvements" brought by information technology
> to banking has been the more or less complete eradication of
> kiting as a fraud technique. For any bank big enough to be in
> the business of sending out database-driven credit card
> mailings, it's absolute child's play for a clerk to pull up and
> verify all the details of any payment. The inconsistencies
> will be pulled as soon as they take a look at your file, and
> will have the effect of making you look like a hardened grifter
> who needs to be made an example of.
> ...
I was using the term "kiting" rather loosely. Here's what I meant: one has, say, three cards. When it's time to make a payment on card one, one gets cash from card two to pay it. To pay card two, one goes to card three. The banks prohibit one from borrowing to pay an account from the same account, but they do not as yet (to my knowledge) prohibit one from borrowing from another account to pay it -- in fact I get solicitations from banks to do just this every week, in spite of the fact that I have no debts. (But then, so does a neighbor who has been dead for some time.) Perhaps I should have used a different word, but I like "kiting", which reminds me of a breezy summer's day in the park.