How to get hold of 8 million dollars

I recall some 25 years ago being told via e-mail to change the Bank Account that my employers Direct Debits would be credited to from a High Street branch of Lloyds to one in a small local village with a population of less than 1,000.

When I kicked up a stink requesting higher authority (we were talking about £700,000 a week even in those days) at first I got into trouble for quibbling, then later it dawned on the powers that be what my intransigence had prevented.

It seems crazy to me that anyone would accept a simple e-mail request as authorisation - I'd expect to see a formal memo on header notepaper, and with at least 2 signatures on it, and then I'd make a phone call to confirm.