Identity Theft and Me
For the last few months, I've noticed a serious problem with respect to my money management. I have also not been receiving my monthly statements since I moved from Modesto (to my current dwelling)...something that really didn't concern me until I went to my bank last week and found that I had about $700 less than I anticipated. Since I no longer share an account with anyone, I rarely ever checked my statements or balanced my checkbook which led me to call my bank in the first place (yesterday).
I found out some interesting things when I called them. I discovered that they never changed my billing/mailing address even though I had asked them to do it twice (just before I moved in March). After I found out about the online banking, I checked it out when I got home from work today. What I discovered absolutely shocked me and also left me with a little relief from my pity party.
So here goes...
I saw an alarming number of transactions from $20 to $120 from various Cellphone Carriers. Said transactions had been taking place since March of this year with as many as 4 separate transactions per day. The total damage including overdraft fees and the amount those fuckfaces stole was approximately $4,500...yes, 4.5k in capital...stolen..from me...without me knowing because I trusted the system and didn't bother to ask them forward my statement to the address I gave them in MARCH.
Today, has been one hell of a day for me to say the least. In one hour, I found out why I have not been able to keep up my end of the utilities (since March...seeing a pattern here?), why I have to tell my kids we're having top ramen again for dinner, and why I can't buy my kids school clothes this year. Sure I partly blame myself for negligence. In this electronic world, my money is automatically transferred to the bank without my hands touching it. I keep a mental note of how much is in there at one time, and unfortunately, this has resulted in the theft of my hard-earned money. This is a mistake I will never make again. I can't rely on the Banks to see multiple transactions on the same account in separate states and have them flag it as suspicious activity.
I've been told that there's a high probability that I wont get back a significant sum of this money due to federal regulations, but I think that's bullshit. Whenever they do manage to investigate this and compensate me, I'm going to thank them repeatedly, then promptly move it over to another competitor. Maybe if they manage to give me all of it back...I might change my mind.
So wow...I have been here in shock for hours now. Here I was thinking I'm a complete tool for not knowing where my money's been going and yes, I've acknowledged that I should've been aware of it much earlier. I'm done beating myself up about that...I'm now onto, 'Holy shit, I'm not a fuck-up!' realizations.
'Holy shit...I'm not a fuckup'~that's got a nice ring to it!
For the last few months, I've noticed a serious problem with respect to my money management. I have also not been receiving my monthly statements since I moved from Modesto (to my current dwelling)...something that really didn't concern me until I went to my bank last week and found that I had about $700 less than I anticipated. Since I no longer share an account with anyone, I rarely ever checked my statements or balanced my checkbook which led me to call my bank in the first place (yesterday).
I found out some interesting things when I called them. I discovered that they never changed my billing/mailing address even though I had asked them to do it twice (just before I moved in March). After I found out about the online banking, I checked it out when I got home from work today. What I discovered absolutely shocked me and also left me with a little relief from my pity party.
So here goes...
I saw an alarming number of transactions from $20 to $120 from various Cellphone Carriers. Said transactions had been taking place since March of this year with as many as 4 separate transactions per day. The total damage including overdraft fees and the amount those fuckfaces stole was approximately $4,500...yes, 4.5k in capital...stolen..from me...without me knowing because I trusted the system and didn't bother to ask them forward my statement to the address I gave them in MARCH.
Today, has been one hell of a day for me to say the least. In one hour, I found out why I have not been able to keep up my end of the utilities (since March...seeing a pattern here?), why I have to tell my kids we're having top ramen again for dinner, and why I can't buy my kids school clothes this year. Sure I partly blame myself for negligence. In this electronic world, my money is automatically transferred to the bank without my hands touching it. I keep a mental note of how much is in there at one time, and unfortunately, this has resulted in the theft of my hard-earned money. This is a mistake I will never make again. I can't rely on the Banks to see multiple transactions on the same account in separate states and have them flag it as suspicious activity.
I've been told that there's a high probability that I wont get back a significant sum of this money due to federal regulations, but I think that's bullshit. Whenever they do manage to investigate this and compensate me, I'm going to thank them repeatedly, then promptly move it over to another competitor. Maybe if they manage to give me all of it back...I might change my mind.
So wow...I have been here in shock for hours now. Here I was thinking I'm a complete tool for not knowing where my money's been going and yes, I've acknowledged that I should've been aware of it much earlier. I'm done beating myself up about that...I'm now onto, 'Holy shit, I'm not a fuck-up!' realizations.
'Holy shit...I'm not a fuckup'~that's got a nice ring to it!
posted by Tobiwan | 8:16 PM
5 Comments:
Wait, I work for a bank, why do they say you wont be getting the money back??? It was fraud. I am curious about this and I will check in to what I can to see if I can get any info for you on regulations.
Hiya Kris,
Specifically, they told me that they could only reimburse me for only 60 days during the time it was occurring. With only 60 days of compensation, that means that I would only be able to get back money from late June to August 22nd.
Thanks again for your concern *beams*
Any information you can pass along would be most appreciated. I plan on spending a little time doing research on BofA's fraud policies today.
:) You know my opinion on this already... but be a monster pain in their arse... I mean ffs 4.5k to a bank is nothing... Go get em tiger!
~Shay... since this fucking thing still won't let me log in.
Ouch, this happened to me twice before, but it didn't go on longer than 60 days.
Give them hell! This is big pain to deal with.. but think- you'll be getting a fat check eventually.
OK Tobiwan, bad news....you only have 90 days to file an "Electronic Error Resolution" with your bank. I guess they figure you should be checking your statements? Unless, of course, you can find some kind of statement or email where you requested your address to be changed. Then it would be the bank's error that the statements continued to go to the wrong address. Sorry! Let me know how it turns out, I am curious.
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