Seems Like It's Always Something Lately

[Herefords.US]

Logged on to our personal bank account two nights ago and saw a pending charge that we didn't make to AutoZone. Called the bank's (Bank of America) 24 hour line and they said not to worry yet - it could have been a mistake by AutoZone and it would disappear before actually posting. The next morning that charge was still there along with a $200+ check written to Radio Shack that we didn't make. Looked at the check online and it appeared that someone had made up some checks with my name on them. They had tried to sign using my signature (wasn't even close) but it also had my wife's Driver's License # on it.

Hopped down to the local BofA branch, expecting a huge hassle, but they took care of everything surprisingly easy. Just a lost hour of time filling out a few forms....a new account and waiting on checks. I'm just glad I monitor everything online on a daily basis and caught it that quickly.

The bank rep said she sees someone with this problem in there virtually every day. It's hard to believe its that common, but it must be - based on how quickly and easily they handled it.

I've spent the last two days trying to figure out how someone managed to get our bank account number, routing number, along with my wife's DL number since we never put it on our checks and pay 99% of our bills with checkcard or online bill pay. I can't come up with any good answers. It almost has to be from old information obtained months ago, since it's been over a year since my wife has written a check where they might have asked for her DL number.

George

 

[MO_cows]

The part of that story that surprises me is that you got such good service from BoA. We bank with them where I work and they are a PITA. We had a check for several thousand dollars that didn't get to where it was supposed to go, but it was cashed, and they were absolutely no help in getting it straightened out. Another time, they mis-scanned some checks from a deposit so they just deleted the scanned images and also destroyed the checks so we had to go back and ask our customers to pay again. They kept claiming that the scanning was an automated process. I want to go down there sometime and watch the checks float over to the scanner and process themselves. They are soon to be our ex-bank.

 

[S&WSigma40VEShooter]

Logged on to our personal bank account two nights ago and saw a pending charge that we didn't make to AutoZone. Called the bank's (Bank of America) 24 hour line and they said not to worry yet - it could have been a mistake by AutoZone and it would disappear before actually posting. The next morning that charge was still there along with a $200+ check written to Radio Shack that we didn't make. Looked at the check online and it appeared that someone had made up some checks with my name on them. They had tried to sign using my signature (wasn't even close) but it also had my wife's Driver's License # on it.

Hopped down to the local BofA branch, expecting a huge hassle, but they took care of everything surprisingly easy. Just a lost hour of time filling out a few forms....a new account and waiting on checks. I'm just glad I monitor everything online on a daily basis and caught it that quickly.

The bank rep said she sees someone with this problem in there virtually every day. It's hard to believe its that common, but it must be - based on how quickly and easily they handled it.

I've spent the last two days trying to figure out how someone managed to get our bank account number, routing number, along with my wife's DL number since we never put it on our checks and pay 99% of our bills with checkcard or online bill pay. I can't come up with any good answers. It almost has to be from old information obtained months ago, since it's been over a year since my wife has written a check where they might have asked for her DL number.

George

I have bank of america and they have always been very helpful. I saw a charge on my account one time for 80.00 that I didnt make. I pay everything with my check card or through my online banking. I called bank of america, they credited my account, sent me some fraud forms to fill out and investigated. They said they were able to determine fraud but were not able to determine from who (no crap sherlock). It didnt really matter, they credited me back the 80.00 and I changed all my banking info. It hasnt happened since.

 

[S&WSigma40VEShooter]

Logged on to our personal bank account two nights ago and saw a pending charge that we didn't make to AutoZone. Called the bank's (Bank of America) 24 hour line and they said not to worry yet - it could have been a mistake by AutoZone and it would disappear before actually posting. The next morning that charge was still there along with a $200+ check written to Radio Shack that we didn't make. Looked at the check online and it appeared that someone had made up some checks with my name on them. They had tried to sign using my signature (wasn't even close) but it also had my wife's Driver's License # on it.

Hopped down to the local BofA branch, expecting a huge hassle, but they took care of everything surprisingly easy. Just a lost hour of time filling out a few forms....a new account and waiting on checks. I'm just glad I monitor everything online on a daily basis and caught it that quickly.

The bank rep said she sees someone with this problem in there virtually every day. It's hard to believe its that common, but it must be - based on how quickly and easily they handled it.

I've spent the last two days trying to figure out how someone managed to get our bank account number, routing number, along with my wife's DL number since we never put it on our checks and pay 99% of our bills with checkcard or online bill pay. I can't come up with any good answers. It almost has to be from old information obtained months ago, since it's been over a year since my wife has written a check where they might have asked for her DL number.

George

You might want to turn it all over to law enforcement. I never did since it was just 80.00 but in your case I would.

 

[grannysoo]

We have some of the on-line fraud in our area, but a lot more of people just stealing checks and writing them all over town. If a book of 25 checks gets stolen, you can look for 25 of them to be written and spent within a day.

Always going to be the criminal element out there.

 

[Herefords.US]

I had someone PM me that a similar incident had happened to them and it was eventually traced back to someone working for their auto insurer, which would also be a possibility in this case since they are one of the few that would have both our bank account numbers and Drivers License numbers, as we have our auto insurer bank draft our account each month. It would also make sense that they might use my wife's DL number, rather than mine, because our insurance on our vehicles still show her as the owner and primary driver, even though she's now disabled and hasn't actually driven in about a year.

The one thing that makes me discount that theory is that the person who did this printed the checks in line (very close) to the check numbers that we are currently using, and someone from our auto insurer wouldn't have that information.

The other possibility I had come up with, last night, was someone might have recently pilfered through my wife's purse, where they could have gotten both the bank information off the checkbook she had in there and her DL information. The only place we can think of where that could have happened in the last few months would be a place where only family and friends of the family were gathered, and even thinking of that as a possibility makes me a little sick to my stomach.

George

 

[HerefordSire]

My first thought is a keystroke logger on one of your client machines that can fire an undetected email to another email address.

 

[Herefords.US]

My first thought is a keystroke logger on one of your client machines that can fire an undetected email to another email address.

Since I recently "retired" from the Internet security business, that was my first thought too, HS. But looking at the check and the method, it has the look of being an isolated amateurish incident, rather than any mass "hack". But I could be wrong.

George

 

[HerefordSire]

My first thought is a keystroke logger on one of your client machines that can fire an undetected email to another email address.

Since I recently "retired" from the Internet security business, that was my first thought too, HS. But looking at the check and the method, it has the look of being an isolated amateurish incident, rather than any mass "hack". But I could be wrong.

George

Where was the check cashed? Locally? In state?

 

[Herefords.US]

Where was the check cashed? Locally? In state?

The AutoZone transaction was an ACH transaction(check cleared electronically) for a whopping $13 and change. It was a Grand Prairie, TX location.

On the $200+ Radio Shack check I haven't found out the location of the store yet. If it is indeed "local", as well, I'm going to pay them a visit once I find out where they are located, to see if they have video of who passed it. I'd like to see if I know the person and can help them identify them. Since we caught it this quick, it's Radio Shack who is out the money. The bank is returning the check to them unpaid and my account has already been credited.

I'm going to bet there's a few other checks that I haven't heard about yet, as there were 4 numbers between the two that I have seen. I bet those are out there somewhere.

George

 

[HerefordSire]

Where was the check cashed? Locally? In state?

The AutoZone transaction was an ACH transaction(check cleared electronically) for a whopping $13 and change. It was a Grand Prairie, TX location.

On the $200+ Radio Shack check I haven't found out the location of the store yet. If it is indeed "local", as well, I'm going to pay them a visit once I find out where they are located, to see if they have video of who passed it. I'd like to see if I know the person and can help them identify them. Since we caught it this quick, it's Radio Shack who is out the money. The bank is returning the check to them unpaid and my account has already been credited.

I'm going to bet there's a few other checks that I haven't heard about yet, as there were 4 numbers between the two that I have seen. I bet those are out there somewhere.

George

Could be a meth user with car issues and going to pawn electronic merchandise. While you are there, whatever the merchandise purchase at Radio Shack was, see if the nearest pawn shops have purchased the same item.