Do you remember in college any advice from your professors about the "logic of the answer?" I always pushed the point during my teaching career because it stopped a lot of idiotic answers to examination questions. When you get to the bottom lines of a response in what is largely a mathematical process and look at the numbers, does it make sense? If you are working on a problem, say, where trains are approaching one another and the answer you get - for velocity - is 800 miles/hour, are you going to leave it at that? Unlikely.

European teaching of mathematics and engineering has always been a little different. For me, in Europe, it was stressed that the answer was not nearly as important as the method you used; also, the final, correct "units" was always more important than the "number" on the bottom line. That process, showing you know how is not nearly as easy to test with multiple choice answers, which to my mind are far too common in the examinations of North America.

I believe that the same logic in looking at the bottom line can and should apply across the board in our lives; the gene pool might be better off with some selective removals of those who cannot see this simple, commonsense, fact of life. When you read some of the absolutely crazy things that people do without thinking about the bottom line you have to wonder whether they don't in fact have a self-destruction gene built in so that they are effectively liberated from society, and they from us.

One of the continual skirmishes I have had on the West Coast has been my bankers. When I first landed here from the Mid-West I decided to go with a small bank with standards that were known to me: Barclays Bank of California. A few years later, because of depression-era laws, Barclays wanted to expand in another State and couldn't do so unless they unloaded the California operation. Wells Fargo stepped in and I had my first experience with a bank that was nearly totally concerned with technology and not people. I ran - to First Interstate Bank.

A few years later - and quite happy with First Interstate who had branches and people who remembered you, and even occasionally lunched you - I became the proud debtor of a mortgage in the Bay area; this, as many readers know, is probably the biggest financial commitment of one's life and makes buying a new car feel almost insignificant. The mortgage was owned by a small company in the Sacramento area: A very friendly operation with some unique product offerings which is one reason it was so attractive. Wham! A year later the loans were sold to . . . Wells Fargo.

That was when I first experienced the Wells Fargo "zero" option. When you call the banking center you are of course presented with an interminable number of options in an effort to find you an answer without involving a salaried human. If you go long enough and don't find an answer the system will finally give you a human alternative. However, there is a quicker way: Hit zero and you will get the response "This is not a valid option." Do it again, anyway, and you will get the same response. After the fourth or fifth zero, seemingly to do with the day of the week, you will get an attendant. I presume they think of it as a technological back door for those "in the know."

Got out of that mortgage pretty soon after: It wasn't a clean transaction because their automated system didn't actually calculate accrued interest correctly, which resulted in them having to refund a few dollars, probably at a cost of $10-12. Then, wham again! First Interstate is bought out by . . . Wells Fargo!

I just lie down and stay quiet for a few years; the giant doesn't bother me and I don't bother the giant. I don't have a bank branch anymore - that's too expensive for the operation - but it doesn't bother me; if all they want is my personal banking business then that is OK by me: Apart from the telephone solicitations, that is. I'm sorry, they are "courtesy calls" not solicitations, that part comes after inquiring as to your health.

Then this month I open a bank statement and a pile of someone else's checks spill out on the kitchen counter. A lady with an address about 200 miles distant. "Silly mistake" I think. Then the penny drops. These checks are all dated within 3 days of one another and the amounts look like someone was on a spending spree. And they were, on my account!

Although the checks were totally out of sequence with those I am using, although the name on the check is a lady's, although the address is 200 miles distant, the checks are all printed with the correct bank sorting code and account number information on the bottom. Although that printing was faulty - with no magnetics - and the checks were all hand-examined to attach a separate clearance ship on the bottom or to put them into a carrier no human scratched his or her head in the process.

Technology gone wild. Bottom line answer is illogical. Check.

All these checks look home-printed. The paper stock is good, with a "VOID" appearing on a photocopy and the right Federal endorsement warning note on the reverse side. But the print styles and layout are not terribly good and the creator was not fully literate. But they whizzed past the traders, who were hoodwinked, and the bank, my beloved Wells Fargo.

Since then, of course, I am not the victim. The bank seeks its authority to take that position. I have had to complete a "fraud package" for the bank - whose verification of which will determine if I will receive a conditional credit on my account - I have to travel 400 miles there and back to make a police report as my local PD doesn't accept jurisdiction (read that as doesn't want that kind of fraud on the town's crime statistics.)

Wells Fargo would like me to drop in to a branch and change accounts because this one is compromised. I actually did go to a branch about 30 miles away and ended up being verbally abused by the branch manager, so I haven't changed accounts. If I do, some one could pass the new account information on to this criminal group (?) and repeat the exercise. At the moment every one of my checks that is going through clearance is being looked at by a bank officer with the assurance that they will telephone me with any questionable instruments; if they cannot verify a document with me they will return it. That is just dandy by me: Just like it used to be when technology wasn't taken to extremes in the name of profits.

Apart from getting defrauded and having human intervention thrust into the loop is there anyway to avoid this? I don't think there is. The logical thing would be to keep a really low balance in your account so that you go overdrawn and get a phone call. The downside to that is that the counterfeit checks - by Murphy's Law - would clear and your rent/mortgage check would not. This simple counterfeiting puts the banking system in jeopardy, and the banks have only themselves to blame.

Look at the bottom line. If it doesn't make sense, check it.

By: Paul McGoldrick
Sr. Technology Editor, EDTN

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