Re: Oh Good Grief...
You might want to read up about paperless direct debits. They can only be in favour of payees who have jumped through the relevant hoops (such as large charities, for example), so Joe Public can't directly empty your bank account into theirs, but there isn't much to prevent a third party setting up a direct debit from your account to, say, a charity (which is what happened in this case) without a signature or other ID. You still of course have the benefit of the direct debit guarantee should you spot the problem and wish to reverse the transaction.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
