Don't give AI agents your bank account number

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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Holy Toledo! If there was ever a no-brainer statement, this is it!
Don’t give AI agents your bank account number! Those busy little beavers could do – who knows what – with your stash of cash.

I think this has Macroeconomic significance because all the AI companies need to make money to cover their hundreds of billions of dollars of investment. And they will do their darndest to convince the public that AI agents can do all kinds of nifty tasks for them, such as answering their e-mails and paying bills from their bank accounts.

Please Don’t Let an AI Bot Log Into Your Bank Account

Banks are warning against giving too much access to AI agents.
by Dashia Milden, cnet.com, October 23, 2026

Whatever you do with AI, don’t give AI bots your banking information.

Agents like Meta’s Muse, OpenClaw and OpenAI’s dots are all the rage in the AI world these days. They promise to go beyond a chatbot that gives you information, becoming a tool where you can tell it to do something for you and it goes and does it.

When you first sign up for an AI agent, you may be asked to grant permission for it to access your apps, browsers and data so it can work with them. That might put your money at risk in unexpected ways.

“The intention might be something simple, like managing a calendar. But that access can give the agent the ability to do much more than the person intended,” said John Strand, the owner of the cybersecurity firm Black Hills Information Security. While you may be giving the agent access to simple smart home routines or getting help planning a trip, your banking information may also be accessible…

One of those challenges is that they don’t always behave in the way you expect or do what you want them to…

There are also plenty of reasons to be worried about the privacy of data shared with agents. Your agent might not meddle in unwanted ways with your money, but it could compromise your login info, letting someone nefarious meddle with your money… [end quote]

Now, I would rather have cranked windows in my car than electric windows, but this takes risk to a whole new level. I want my AI to be a super-sophisticated search engine or spreadsheet, not to be able to act on my behalf.

I asked Gemini’s opinion and it pointed out that malicious code could hijack the AI agent. “Unlike a traditional script, AI agents read unstructured text and data. If an agent accesses your email or browser to pay a bill and encounters a malicious string of text hidden on a web page or invoice (a prompt injection attack), the AI can be tricked into overriding its original instructions—such as rerouting money or exfiltrating credentials.”

Bottom line: No way, Jose.

Wendy

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Account number, pshaw! I regularly read stuff about people, SMART people, VERY successful people, who give their AI access to their bank logins, their businesses bank logins, and their email, and everything else they use electronically in their lives. They say it greatly improves their lives and businesses by streamlining everything they do. Some even let their AI compose and send emails on their behalf.

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Wow!
This will work…until suddenly something bad happens. Then it will be a mess.

Personally, I don’t use my phone for any financial transactions. Banking apps, nix! At home, my desktop computer has an ethernet cable. I don’t do any financial transactions over WiFi even though it’s encrypted.

I use Google Authenticator because it’s possible to hack SMS. Also, my main brokerage accounts are locked for transfers out (except for scheduled transfers to pay health insurance, credit cards, etc.).

It only takes 5 minutes for Gemini to explain all the weaknesses in using AI agents. It’s hard to believe that SMART people trust them.
Wendy

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@MarkR

We have pricing systems where i work that we are transitioning to AI. We are now collecting data on sales for AI.

I know that for my game, I can simply ask Claude about pricing structures without giving Claude my data.

Our company does not know what a waste of resources it is to reinvent the wheel. Plus the risk that every other competitor gets a free look at successful pricing models based on our data. The further risk is that AI makes up its own ideas about pricing.

Our cost for this is approximately $1.8 million in the first year. Not the worst waste in the world, but unnecessary.

It also does not fix the physical problems in our inventory system. That is the main reason to change things.

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How about a personal assistant?

One of the comments
" Most of the hype is about the big things that artificial intelligence can do, when most of the benefits that most people get from using AI tools are tiny removals of friction."

More and more common I encounter QR codes at businesses that “must be scanned if I want service”.

Id like an agentic to handle the drudgery.

For many appointments, I get the “click to confirm, cancel, reschedule” texts n emails.
I’d like an agentic to handle this drudgery.

Businesses are cutting staff.
As more “humans” are removed from the loop, I think this kind of “time sink” let-the-customer-fill-in-the-blank activity is going to increase.

Muse, Instinct n such agentics might be very attractive.

:robot:
ralph

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A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. So what is the weak link to worry about, someone working at my bank/brokerage firm, giving an AI agent access to the system. Could either be intentional or something as benign as clicking an email link.

While I have 2 step authentication activated on everything, my brokerage firm has a lockdown mode where monies can’t be transferred out until I unlock it. Similar to the function my credit card has. But, again, that weak link letting something into the system.

Wondering how useful a paper statement could be if something were to happen.

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Can’t hurt…if the whole electronic system at the broker were to crash. Otherwise, the broker has an electronic copy of every statement.

But if the whole system were to crash, imagine the fearsome mess of trying to present and verify a paper statement among thousands of other customers.

Wendy