Dealing with fraud

[cleorose]

As someone who has dealt with fraud, run do not walk to your bank. Walk in because you need to switch over your account info. If this person has any kind of brain they probably wrote down the routing number and account number to your checking account (bottom of check), your personal address and phone number (also on the check) and they might even kept a copy of the check for signature purposes. (My sister did all of the above).

The credit bureaus should be contacted as well. You can do alot with a name, address and banking info. You do not want to know what either. My sister opened a welfare case in my name, since she had my info,she was able to get a social security card, ID etc all in my name. She was able to open a couple store cards and finance a car and all kinds of bad stuff. Just with having a checkbook, and some basic information. No precaution is too much.

I agree that your dental insurance should be either on auto pay or something. Checks are always a bad idea. Too easy to fake and alter. And no one is motivated it seems to protect the interests of the checkholder usually. I have a hubby that used to like write checks. Alot of checks. And he left the checkbook in the car. Well the bank sees that he has four or five months of checks ranging from $5 to 250$ and all the fake checks were local shops we used and for amounts that they had seen us write in the past. Guess who was out $730 ? Us. BOA sucks balls.

I wish you oodles of luck cause I have been there with the fraud.

[Teefies2]

I was wondering the same thing. Such an obvious change should have been rejected by the teller.

I'm no so sure the check was stolen out of the mail. I suspect it was stolen by someone at the dentist's office/insurance office or was doctored by someone at the bank.

This happened to me. My then-husband went to a podiatrist. When he went to pay, the cashier told him - just fill in the amount, I have a stamp for the "pay to" line. (He wasn't very bright so he did.) That $100 check (this was in 1983 - so $100 was a big deal to us) was cashed by the cashier filling HER name in on the "pay to" line.

I was fortunate. As soon as I received the cancelled check, I called the podiatrist at home (again, 1983, I had been given his home phone number when I was a patient there -cell phones weren't common then - this would NOT happen today!) He verified that the name on the check was his cashier, said he would pursue it, and marked our account "paid".

Good luck!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Why did the depositing bank (or any check-cashing place) even accept the check if it was a) altered like that and b) made out to a company but endorsed by an individual?

I was wondering the same thing. Such an obvious change should have been rejected by the teller.

Once again, all you need is somebody who isn't paying attention or doesn't care.

[Akasa]

The person at my bank said she thought that the check was deposited at an ATM because no banker she knew would have taken that check.(For the question as to how it was cashed/deposited.)

The bank suggested I have 2 bank accounts. 1 to pay bills and 1 for my discretionary funds.

I want to thank you all for the support.

[Dreamstalker]

BOA sucks balls.

Yes, they do. When I was in college I had an account with them. A psycho neighbor stole my statement out of the mail when I was home for the summer one year and went on a spending spree; it was timed so I didn't realize what had happened until I got back to school. One of the merchants (major clothing retailer) was less than helpful and even tried to convince me that I had let my mom use my card ...that merchant's security was sadly lacking as the orders were placed over the phone and they did nothing to verify past asking for info that was on the statement that the thief had (now had they asked for the CVV that could have stopped it as she did not have the actual card). She forged my signature to accept deliveries--not only was it a fairly poor forgery, but I was 1500 miles away at the time the deliveries were 'signed for'.

Very long story short, BoA finally tried to claim that I was defrauding them (even with a police report, which they did not want to see). We finally had to go to the AG to get them off our back.

The bank suggested I have 2 bank accounts. 1 to pay bills and 1 for my discretionary funds.

That's a great idea (I had a discretionary, but it has turned into a joint account/mom's account for paying rent...I found that out after $500 in incoming consignment-sale money vaporized before I could dole it out to the owners). I still maintain my small checking account at my dad's bank...the idea is that it's a pain to access those funds from here (either wire transfer or ATM fees), but it's still there in an emergency.

[mathnerd]

I worked in deposit operations at MajorBank for some time. While in that department (it wasn't the first department I worked for there), my specialty area was checks and exceptions. While we did not directly work with the fraud cases, we did have to be able to spot them in order to send them over to fraud. Anyway, the how's of this are pretty easy to imagine. There are chemicals you can use to bleach a check and then rewrite it for however much you want. The scanners at the ATM won't catch this. Not all ATM's are audited every day. It's very possible that this check was never seen by a human until the OP opened a fraud case. Even if it was deposited with a teller, a good thief can modify a check so that it's not obvious (again, the bleaching).

I'm going to add my voice to those recommending to find some other way to pay this bill. There are laws that cover electronic transactions that don't cover other types of transactions, including checks. RegE makes it very difficult for banks to wiggle out of paying back fraudulent transactions that were done with a debit/credit card or through electronic debit. Not so much with checks. You have very little protection when it comes to checks.

[Akasa]

The check was VERY obviously doctored.

[Tama]

One of those 'janitor fracture' situations, huh?

[Akasa]

So my case is out of the research department and now in the check fraud department.

I am going to call in a few minutes and see if there's any update. When I called yesterday the lady working on my case had just gotten the file and hadn't had a chance to go over it.

[taxguykarl]

Good to hear that the bank is taking this matter seriously.

[sms001]

Good to hear Akasa!

On a lighter note, during a VERY frazzled end-of-term I'd written so many checks to Local Pizza that I turned blearily to paying bills and rent and made out my JC Penny charge payment to "Local Pizza"
Went through no problem, didn't even notice until I got my checks back in the mail and was reconciling my statement.

[eltf177]

Good to hear that the bank is taking this matter seriously.

This is indeed a good thing!

[Cia]

Since it was deposited through an ATM the bank will have the account number and name to work w/ plus video.

[Akasa]

As of today the money is back in my account, including the overdraft fees.

I still want to get ahold of the banker in charge of my account and ask them to press charges. IDK if they do it automatically.

[Seanette]

Glad you got your money back. I'd pursue charges, to get this "person" caught before they do worse to someone in an even worse position (poorer, less cooperative bank, etc.).

Is your insurance coverage still OK, since that payment got stolen?