Woman Says Comcast Published Check For Her "Right Arm"

[Kor37 9]

Woman says Comcast published check for her ``right arm''

AP

Posted: 2008-06-06 08:13:16

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh woman who sent Comcast Corp. a check made out for "My Right Arm and Zero Dollars" is up in arms because she says someone published a copy of the check on the Internet.

 

Krista Cooney and her husband Chad are suing the Philadelphia-based cable television company for invasion of privacy. They say an unknown Comcast employee circulated a copy of the check - containing their personal banking information - along with a snide comment. They say a Colorado man saw the image and alerted them.

 

A Comcast official did not immediately comment on the suit.

 

The suit says Cooney sent the check last summer because she was unhappy with a large bill she received after subscribing to bundled services for her cable television, Internet and telephone.

So she does something stupid and when someone else responds with stupidity, she sues? She should consider herself lucky that nobody came to her house to 'cash the check'!

[trekz 7]

Woman says Comcast published check for her ``right arm''

AP

Posted: 2008-06-06 08:13:16

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh woman who sent Comcast Corp. a check made out for "My Right Arm and Zero Dollars" is up in arms because she says someone published a copy of the check on the Internet.

 

Krista Cooney and her husband Chad are suing the Philadelphia-based cable television company for invasion of privacy. They say an unknown Comcast employee circulated a copy of the check - containing their personal banking information - along with a snide comment. They say a Colorado man saw the image and alerted them.

 

A Comcast official did not immediately comment on the suit.

 

The suit says Cooney sent the check last summer because she was unhappy with a large bill she received after subscribing to bundled services for her cable television, Internet and telephone.

So she does something stupid and when someone else responds with stupidity, she sues? She should consider herself lucky that nobody came to her house to 'cash the check'!

Do you mean the collection agency "Chainsaw Collections"?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

It is funny, but this Comcast employee should have blurred out the personally identifiable information before publishing it.

[ddillard 2]

I don't think that it would have been nearly as much of an issue if all of her personal information had been concealed when it was placed on the net.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I'm with the woman on this one - companies that receive personal information have a legal responsibility to safeguard that information. Publishing someone's name, address and banking info online is an act of extreme irresponsibility. Whether her actions were foolish is irrelevant - as the old saying goes two wrongs don't make a right. And I think what the employee did may have been criminal - at the very least I hope the person gets fired.

[ddillard 2]

Yeah, posting the information online without hiding her information opens her up for identity theft.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

Well this is all covered by the law and I believe she as a very good case and will win. Comcast, like any other company that deals with people's personal information has a privacy policy and pard of that privacy policy states that they will not share your personal information with anyone outside of their company (aside from collection agencies if need be).

 

I'm with the woman here too.

[Wishfire 2]

Isn't it also illegal to write an intentionally bad check?

[ddillard 2]

If there is not dollar amount it is not a bad check. It is just a piece of paper, like writing void on the check.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

Isn't it also illegal to write an intentionally bad check?

 

 

If there is not dollar amount it is not a bad check. It is just a piece of paper, like writing void on the check.

 

Exactly, writing a bad check would br writing it for a dollar amount that you know you don't have. Writing it for an "arm" would be writing an invalid check. Even still though, if it was illegal to write the check it wouldn't give the company the right to give millions of people this woman's checking account number, name, home address and possibly phone number, ssn or DL #.

 

With the account and routing number alone someone could clean her account out.

[Wishfire 2]

I'm not saying that the company was in any way right. I'm saying that the woman was also wrong.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I agree with Kevin and ddillard on this - I don't think anyone could have possibly taken what she wrote as a real financial document even though she may have used a printed "check" because a check requires legal language which includes actual dollar amounts. On the other hand I think you can write an actual check on blank paper as long as it includes the required language (I guess that depends on the jurisdiction and even if it was legal I'm not sure anyone would take it)

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

Legally there are 5 requirements to consider a check a check:

 

1) An account number (written or electronic)

2) A date

3) A dollar amount

4) A signature (does not need to be hand-signed)

5) A payee

 

If it doesn't have all 5 of these it is not a check.

 

On the other hand, anything with all 5 of these could be a check. It doesn't have to be a pre-printed check form. One guy I know wrote this information on a sandwich bag and the bank had to cash it. The next day he wrote the same information on an eggshell. Again they had to cash it.

 

(They didn't have to let him into the bank on the 3rd day however.)

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Legally there are 5 requirements to consider a check a check:

 

1) An account number (written or electronic)

2) A date

3) A dollar amount

4) A signature (does not need to be hand-signed)

5) A payee

 

If it doesn't have all 5 of these it is not a check.

 

On the other hand, anything with all 5 of these could be a check. It doesn't have to be a pre-printed check form. One guy I know wrote this information on a sandwich bag and the bank had to cash it. The next day he wrote the same information on an eggshell. Again they had to cash it.

 

(They didn't have to let him into the bank on the 3rd day however.)

 

Thanks for the info

[Wishfire 2]

I've heard of a check being written on a spent bomb casing. As for the dollar amount, I've also heard of checks being written out where, instead of a dollar amount, and item or a piece of property was written in. (Though, iirc, that kind of check had to be validated with lawyers from both parties, as well as the bank itself, to insure validity.)

[VaBeachGuy 12]

I agree with Kevin and ddillard on this - I don't think anyone could have possibly taken what she wrote as a real financial document even though she may have used a printed "check" because a check requires legal language which includes actual dollar amounts. On the other hand I think you can write an actual check on blank paper as long as it includes the required language (I guess that depends on the jurisdiction and even if it was legal I'm not sure anyone would take it)

A check doesn't even need to be written. You can do electronic checks either over the phone or on the internet. That's why posting her check was so dangerous.

 

Legally there are 5 requirements to consider a check a check:

 

1) An account number (written or electronic)

2) A date

3) A dollar amount

4) A signature (does not need to be hand-signed)

5) A payee

 

If it doesn't have all 5 of these it is not a check.

 

On the other hand, anything with all 5 of these could be a check. It doesn't have to be a pre-printed check form. One guy I know wrote this information on a sandwich bag and the bank had to cash it. The next day he wrote the same information on an eggshell. Again they had to cash it.

 

(They didn't have to let him into the bank on the 3rd day however.)

 

There's actually a piece missing for a written check. You must have a routing number as well as the account number. The routing number is the 9 digit number that identifies the bank. The account number identifies the specific person's account.

 

But again, it doesn't have to be written and the signature isn't required. Give me your routing number, account number, name and address and I can clean you out.