My wife and I were unpleasantly surprised to find out yesterday morning that a checking account was wiped clean of over $1k and because we have overdraft protection an additional $400 was taken from savings by an electronic draft from our bank to another bank, the copy of the inter-bank check in question had our account number but another person's name and address. The loss claims person from our bank took all of the information from us via the telephone (holiday) yesterday and said to make a visit to our bank in person first thing this morning to close and change accounts.

It took us a couple of hours in our bank closing and re-opening accounts and trying to find out the bottom of the issue and was told on several occasions that it looks to be fraud on the individual who was listed on the check and he was indeed a member of our bank but wouldn't go into any details regarding the individual. After all of the time spent in the bank the last document we signed was a signature card which had our SS numbers along with our names, address and our account information, while overlooking this document that our bank just printed from their computer we noticed everything was absolutely correct except our address ... which happened to be listed as the very same address as the person who was listed on the original check!

She couldn't explain it.

Sorry to hear this Rick. I hope you get it all straightened out, then change banks.

Sorry to hear about this also Rick.

Sure is getting to be a scary world. Hard to protect ones identity these days.

Hope you get everything straightened out.

Damn, that sucks. Hope ya get it resolved soon.

Oh it's resolved, the money is replaced and I never worried about that ... it's just the lackadaisical attitude of the banking people that piss you off. My wife was really PO'd to the max and it *almost* seemed to me like everybody in the bank knew, () especially after the wrong address on the last document scene.

I was like, 'Whew, sure glad it isn't aimed towards me ... this time'

That's good news then.

I think any bank will cover losses like that, it's just the hassle because of the account(s) changes. What's really funny was that the bank rep was trying to sell us chit all the while we were closing accounts!

Oh, and the bank in question you ask? Wachovia.

wow... I hope the culprit goes to jail

David I'm thinking it was an internal issue with our bank.
The guy made a payment from one bank to another and it so happened the bank he was making the payment from was shared by us and him, whenever our bank processed his payment they somehow tagged our account number onto his name and pulled the money from our account to do so. I would have thought otherwise right up until the minute the bank rep slid that document for us to sign with our information and the guy's address ... which was freshly printed from their computer.

So this was a bank screw up? or was it deliberate(fraud) by that individual, Rick?

Sorry to hear of this situation Rick; I understand what you're going through. A couple months ago my bank card was compromised as well. Luckily I make habit of checking online every couple days, so I caught the activity at the $1500 mark. My funds were returned, but what upset me was my bank was not "jumping" to help me! I actually called two of the places charges were placed at and they reversed charges before products were shipped. I got a letter from the bank a week later explaining they think there has been fraudulant activity --- you think! It's amazing how vulnerable we can be??? Amazing there are people out there preying on innocent folks????? Glad to hear you recovered evrything Rick.

Mrs. Tuttle is seriously considering cookie jars, mattresses, cans buried in the backyard, etc.

We were with Washington Mutual for MANY years but since they went TU and were purchased by Chase, it's become only a matter of time before we go all Economic Survivalist or something. Currently shopping for a Credit Union.

Rick, I'm glad you were able to get this resolved.

Tom, I was with Washington Mutual for years, too. I can't say that I'm a big fan of Chase.

It looks to be outright fraud now, today we were informed that somebody had enough of our personal information to have changed our home address from Vero Beach to Miami and they did just that, the bank is now addressing this as an identity theft case.

Oh the hassle.

I hate people like this, such scumbags. I have had my debit card copied twice, and had credit cards compromised three times as well. I haven't been out of pocket for any of it, but I try to be careful and it still happens. Such a pain in the ass. Three weeks after a trip to Europe someone spent $4400 at the Happy Hippo Lodge in Kenya (lol) on my Visa, I don't even know how something like that goes through without phone authorization.

I had somebody buy a raft of airline tickets in Italy on one of my credit cards. The credit card company reversed the charges, but since they were in $US and the exchange rate dropped like a stone between charge and reversal I still ended up out a hundred dollars or so.

We're still discussing who should eat the costs for that one... I'm pretty sure it's not me, the credit card company is pretty sure it's not them, and the airline has put up an impenetrable wall of incompetence by pretending not to understand what the credit card company is saying.

RickF; at least this increases the chances of somebody other than you suffering for what happened

I had this same problem with Paypal in the past. Refunds and/or credits wouldn't come out as a wash due to fluctuating exchange rates. They've changed that now though. Regardless of exchange rate, I get refunded the exact amount $CAD that was originally billed to my card.

So in your case, I'd have to say the credit card company (or perhaps more accurately the BANK associated with your credit card) needs to be on the hook for that one as they're the ones handling (ie. profiting from) the currency exchange afterall.

There's no way you should be out of pocket. The airline either deals in $US or has already accepted whatever discrepancy existed between the before and after exchange rate, so your credit card company and/or their bank needs to do the same.