How identity thieves drained my bank accounts
Posted on April 19, 2013 6 Comments
An imposter drained my bank accounts
By late December 2012, my holiday countdown had begun. Ten minutes before the office Christmas party, my thoughts turned to a seemingly endless list of festive preparations I had yet to finish before a string of family gatherings kicked off: gifts to buy, cookies to bake, cards to deliver…
… BUZZ …
My phone interrupted my thoughts with a text message: “You have $0.30 remaining in your bank account.”
“That’s not right,” I thought.
Sitting at my desk, I checked my online bank account.
$0.30
…What?
I quickly discovered two large withdrawals in my transaction list. Surely a mistake had been made. I called the bank.
It was not a mistake. Not only was my checking account drained, two more large withdrawals had been taken from my savings account. In total, $4,000 was gone from my account little more than 24 hours.
The bank never suspected identity theft. The text I received was my own alert designed to send a message if my checking account ever got low.
As the magnitude of the situation unfolded, first I cried. (How would I buy my family Christmas presents with no money!?) Then I screamed at the bank. (How could this happen!?) Then, shaking, I collected my thoughts and demanded answers. At some point, a co-worker brought me pizza from the holiday party, and I wiped away my tears of rage. Then, I took a personal day and spent the next 24 trying to right everything. Then, the next four weeks trying to get my accounts back to normal.
Now, months later, I have a complete picture of what happened. I have a new bank. And while I’m still vulnerable to these same thieves, I can at least share a few of the key points.
How it happened
When my wallet was stolen in November, I called my large national bank twice to report the incident. The first time I called, the night of the wallet theft, the representative said I didn’t need to do anything more, she would cancel my bank card and send me a new one. I thought it was odd that I she didn’t advise me to close the account.
I called two days later to ask, “What happens if someone walks into a branch with my driver’s license and tries to withdraw cash?”
The representative said, “Don’t worry ma’am, that won’t happen, we are a very secure bank.”
Neither woman I spoke to, apparently, set the proper flags on my accounts.
Three weeks later, a woman my height, my weight, with matching hair color, dressed in a jacket similar to mine on the night my wallet was stolen, walked into four different bank branches without my bank account number, social security number, or a functioning ATM card and rapidly removed $4,000 from my accounts. No flags went off at any bank branch.
At branch number five, a cashier recognized that the imposter wasn’t a perfect match for my ID and thought she was behaving oddly. The fake ran off in a hurry, and left my driver’s license behind. We later saw it was a dummy wallet with fake credit cards; not my wallet and not my cards. I never got those back, but they were all cancelled anyway.
The wallet she left behind was a textured or beaded material, one that would make it nearly impossible to get prints. My dad, a retired cop, said, “It’s not her first time at the rodeo.”
My response
In November, I had filed a police report and put flags on my credit report, so when this new theft showed up, I just amended my police report and made a note to the credit bureaus. I informed my other financial institutions in writing that I had no plans to remove any large amounts any time soon.
My big national bank advised me to get a new bank, so I did. This was a major pain because I only had 48 hours before my once-monthly work check posted. At that point, the imposter was still on the loose with my driver’s license, so I didn’t want my cash going to that account. Work would not write me a check. Once I rushed to transfer the deposit, I had no access to my paycheck, and I had zero dollars in my account for two weeks.
After the old bank’s investigation closed, it reimbursed me for my losses and cashed me out. Easy. Then, for two weeks after that, they charged me a bunch of fees for having “insufficient funds” in my account. I have never met with so many people face to face to explain away bogus charges. Thank goodness I’m financially savvy, and I keep records and detailed notes of every conversation regarding my case. No one else but me was on top of it.
Finally, I later enlisted an intense credit monitoring service in case anyone tries to use the information from my wallet to open up new lines of credit.
Back to blogging
One other action I immediately took while the imposter was on the loose: I took my blog down for personal security reasons. It meant I would lose readers, especially since it was long term, but it was for my personal safety and security. I also took time to scrub my site of some references, which meant reviewing more than 500 posts. That took even more time than dealing with my banks, but now I’ve got everything safe for public consumption again.
Thanks to everyone who reads this post and puts me back in their feeds and blogrolls. I could have never imagined I’d go through something like this, but I’m enormously glad I’ve been chronicling my finances for the past nine years. It helped me remain calm after the initial shock, locate the resources I needed in a time of crisis, and prepare me to hold many confident conversations with financial types involved in a case I took into my own hands.
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Category: Money
Tags: identity theft
Comments
6 Responses to “How identity thieves drained my bank accounts”
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April 20th, 2013 @ 5:42 am
So glad you were able to get everything worked out. That would be an awful experience to live through. I’m glad you are back to blogging because your blog is one of my favorites and one of the first that I began reading.
Maybe you could offer some tips on ways to prevent a similar circumstance, or how to make sure that your blog is safe from potential identity thieves.
April 20th, 2013 @ 6:25 am
O wow Nicole. That is crazy. I can’t believe a big national bank was so unresponsive and inept at helping its clients.
I am so glad you were a me to get everything sorted out. Scary wht people will do.
April 20th, 2013 @ 10:28 am
Wow, nice work. I have had those kinds of conversations with banks. I mean, I call the freaking cable service and they have detailed records of my last conversation with them. The bank? Right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. Glad you shared your experience so others can learn how to handle it.
April 22nd, 2013 @ 12:01 pm
I missed your blog.
Tell me what bank that was so I can make sure I do not bank with them …
April 22nd, 2013 @ 12:05 pm
Just to protect myself I prefer not to name any institutions but if you email me I can tell you! T, I think you have my email address
April 22nd, 2013 @ 12:45 pm
I did not even think of that, but I got your e-mail. Thanks. PS I do not bank there