You know how some financial institutions which work with your bank account make small deposits into your checking account to verify that you are the owner of that account? You sign up for an account (such as Paypal) and they make a couple small deposits (usually less than a 25 cents each) of varying amounts into your checking account. You then have to verify the amount of money they deposited into the account in order to complete the sign-up process.

Turns out this guy allegedly cobbled a script or two together which opened thousands of accounts at eTrade and others institutions which follow the same verification process. He made about $50k in six months before the secret service caught up to him.