Could this happen to you?

[TheAlmightyMiko]

Yesterday, I went out to do some grocery shopping, and when I went to pay with my bank card, my card was declined and I was informed that my card use had been restricted. I had no clue why, I had just used it the day before to pick up lunch and bus tickets. So, I called my bank's customer service line to find out what was going on, and I found out that just that morning, someone had used a cloned copy of my card to make three seperate *fake* deposits (meaning that they deposited empty envelopes into an ABM so that my total balance would go up) totaling $5,000.00, and then proceeded to go to another branch and attempt to withdraw $3,000.00. Now, I never keep more than $500 in my chequing account, and luckily my savings account isn't linked to my bank card, so they weren't able to make the withdrawl since I don't have $2,500 in overdraft protection. The bank immediately froze my account and I didn't find out until that afternoon when I tried to use my card.

What's really frustrating though is that the bank NEVER contacted me to let me know my account has been frozen, and now I have to go to the bank on monday, sign a million affadavits, switch my accounts and bank cards, and then wait for them to complete an investigation until this whole mess is cleaned up--which they informed me could take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks--for me to have access to my account and money. So now, I have rent due next week, pigs to buy veggies for, bills due in a few weeks, and no access to my money. Period. I had to borrow some money from my grandfather until the bank sorts this all out. It's SOOO frustrating that they can just hold your money from you, especially since they already have verified the balance that was mine and the deposits/withdrawls that were NOT mine.

If I've learned anything, it's to keep a spare bank account, envelope, etc. with emergency money in it, just in case. You never know when you could be targeted, and these people don't care WHOSE lives they put on hold, or even ruin (imagine if I had had the money, I would have been completely out of luck and unaware!). It amazes me how dishonest some people can be, it's just disgusting! I just thought you should all be warned that this kind of thing can happen to ANY of us--it happened to me!

 

[Slap Maxwell]

I hate that some people do that. It is really sickning. I hope everything works out and good luck.

 

[toffeepig]

HOld on, Miko, slow down. You said that it was just this morning that this idiot had done this, is it possible they *tried* to contact you while you were out shopping?? Or it may be that the *almighty bank computer* did the freezing, even though no one was at the bank (on a saturday) to contact you. That's why they have 24-hr customer service, to help pick up slack on the weekends.
And I'm pretty sure that since they know which charges were fraudulent and which weren't, they WILL allow you access to the funds in your savings, at the very least(since it wasn't involved in the fraud), so you can get the new account up and running. I know it's going to make things tight for a bit, but hey, at least you KNOW that eventually you'll get your money back. THey could have cleaned you out before the bank got wise!

Sending good vibes your way that this gets resolved quickly before your bills are due. I know how tough it is to ask for a loan from family, but I'm sure they understand.

 

[TheAlmightyMiko]

HOld on, Miko, slow down. You said that it was just this morning that this idiot had done this, is it possible they *tried* to contact you while you were out shopping?? Or it may be that the *almighty bank computer* did the freezing, even though no one was at the bank (on a saturday) to contact you. That's why they have 24-hr customer service, to help pick up slack on the weekends.
And I'm pretty sure that since they know which charges were fraudulent and which weren't, they WILL allow you access to the funds in your savings, at the very least(since it wasn't involved in the fraud), so you can get the new account up and running.

No, I was home during the time that the account was frozen (it was friday, not saturday, so I was informed that the hold came directly from the branch manager, whom I spoke with and she told me that "she didn't know why no one had contacted me"). It's just frustrating because they gave me the complete run around...
But I was also told directly that until they discerned what debits/credits were mine and not mine through the investigation and the investigation was finalized I won't be able to access anything. I gave them a million different scenarios, but they said that all access to my account was restricted for a minimum of two weeks. Let's hope they change their mind or the investigation goes amazingly fast...
At any rate, thanks for the good vibes...hopefully things will start looking up.

 

[charliesmommy]

Personally, I would have been thankful that they actually noticed and froze the accounts... I have a friend who had her identity stolen and lost a lot of money, not to mention her good credit rating. At least you didn't have any money taken from you because the bank was watchful. Now, hopefully they will get everything back together quickly so you can feed those pigs! Haha.
I'd be really angry at the pathetic person who tried to steal money from you... people need to get jobs and work for their money!

 

[Denise]

We actually got a surprise from our credit card company yesterday. We had gone to Target and purchased a patio set at 4:58 p.m. using my Target Visa. At 5:02 p.m. the credit card company had called my house to verify that we had actually made that purchase. When I called them back to verify that, yes, we had made that purchase, I thanked them profusely! I was very impressed. That has never happened before. (Sorry to hijack the thread!)

 

[LuvMyPiggers]

I use my credit card sparingly, but when I do I'm always sure it will go thru because I havn't put alot on it. So I went to buy a huge ferret cage at a petstore (Yes it was big enough), and the lady said it didn't go thru. I didn't have that much cash on me and I couldn't write a check because I knew my checking account had nothing in it. I have to go backtoday and get a new cage I also called my bank and they said that my card had been scanned at a gas pump... BLECHHGGHH!