Green Dot Banking Changes

[qwilliamson]

We have had several instances where client banking information was changed to a Green Dot account and routing number after submission of returns to Lacerte. Seems like bank information was changed when Lacerte submitted returns to IRS because our printed copies and  Lacerte file of returns show correct banking information and activity logs have no activity after printing returns to pdf. Anyone else having same issue?

[abctax55]

Not quite sure what a "Green Dot" account is - is that the name of a bank?

If that's the case - this is scary. Hacking comes to mind.... of your system....

I assume these returns had refunds (not payments) and that your clients haven't received their refunds?

How did you find this out?

[abctax55]

I see Green Dot is an on-line bank, connected with VISA.

Any connection with your client's bank accounts?

[qwilliamson]

Green Dot is name of bank. Returns had refunds and not payments. Some clients called about delay of refunds and then some clients received IRS letters to verify bank information. Don't know how hacking of our system would be an issue when our logs are showing that the correct information was received by Lacerte and change occurred from the Lacerte to IRS submission.

[qwilliamson]

Absolutely no connection at all to client bank accounts.

[abctax55]

Hackers don't always leave a nice clean trail to follow..... maybe it's just my paranoia.

Have you contacted Lacerte's customer/tech support for info?  And maybe the IRS efile help desk?

And FWIW, this is the first reporting of this situation that I've seen (across several forums I follow).

[IntuitGabi]

@qwilliamson Have you used the pay-by-refund feature? The bank, Santa Barbara Tax Payer Group, will issue Prepaid cash Green Dot cards for refunds. TPG Bank bank will have account and routing information of its own for your participating clients, it's not the routing and account number of your clients regular bank. This is what I know about Green Dot, other than that you may want to reach out to support for more details on this topic. I hope this helps. 

Screenshot from the pay-by-refund page linked above..."Learn more about participating banks":

[abctax55]

Ah Ha.... that never crossed my mind as I've never used that function. Much better outcome than a hack job 🙂