There are several methods to do this. One of the more recent ones is you receive a phone call and the party on the other end recites all your personal information. They then recite your bank account or credit card information. Once you have confirmed this for them, they will tell you they have mistakenly debited your account for $XXX.xx. They tell you this will only take minute to correct and you should see a credit the next business day. The next day the victim notices their account has actually been debited for the amount that was specified on the phone call and not credited as they were led to believe.

This is an ACH or electronic transfer. All a company or person needs to do an electronic transfer is a written or verbal confirmation. Verbal confirmation can be conveyed through a recording device.

What is believed to happen in our example is the criminal is recording the conversation on their end then they are editing the message and replacing your approval for a "credit" to your account with the word "debit" and you, the victim, have your account debited. You are at the loss, because you have given your approval and the bank is only honoring that request. The bank will not be out any money.

Keep yourself safe and don't allow yourself to be a victim by not giving out any of your account information over the phone or confirming anything over the phone unless you know positively who it is you are talking to.