[derf_]

> PayPal used two small (less than $1) transactions and the verification that I own the bank account was verified by correctly identifying the two transaction values.

Based on my experience with (non-PayPal) financial institutions in the past year, this is going away. For now, it appears you can still force them to fall back to this when providing your login credentials does not work, but who knows how much longer.

[thephyber]

It was pretty good trick for validating ownership of a bank account back in 1998, but I’m happy they are moving to something else. There are far better options, and most banks are capable of much higher assurance validation now.