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Home >> Accounts >> Checking Accounts
Check Forgery and Fraud and No Help
On or about 3/24/2008, as I was getting ready to pay my bills with my checking account, I noticed that four checks were missing. Inmediately, I called the bank's 800 number to check my account, and indeed two checks out of the four checks were cashed or deposited into someone's else account.
These two checks, one for $21,000 and another for $10,000, were deposited into someone's account on Saturday 3/22/2008 and cashed on 3/24/2008 without verifying my signature, without calling me to verify if I have authorized these large amounts of checks. What intrigues me more is that all other checks that I make always had a holding period, but these checks were cashed the same day, without holding them. I was shocked.
Inmediately, I went to my branch to report the theft. A claim was filed the same day and a police report filed. During the week, I kept calling the 800 number to find out the status of my claim, but I was never given a specific answer for these stolen checks that were not written by me, authorized by me or signed by me. The forged signature doesn't even come close.
On or about 4/2/2008, I went to the branch for help and reported that I was not getting any positive response about getting my money back. While at the branch I was informed that they had no record of the initial claim that I filed there at the bank. A new claim was filed on 4/2/2008.
After so much stress about the $31,000 that my trusted bank was holding, on or about 4/28/2008, I received two letters that my money will be reimbursed into my new account. On 5/12/2008, I received another letter that my money will not be reimbursed.
What I do not understand and is suspicious to me, is that when I make a check to someone who wants to cash a check for $800 or more, the branch many times calls me to confirm if it is OK by me to cash it, but to cash $10,000 and $21,000 without consulting me, without checking my signature and just release this amount of money without any questions or a holding period to check my signature is beyond my imagination.
If my bank checked my signature and cashed them, then my bank had knowledge that those checks were forged. They cashed them and they did not hold them to verify my signature. They did not ask me if those checks were OK to cash and now they are telling me I was negligent and that is why they are not returning my money. They neglected to protect my account and now they are accusing me of negligence when I notified them the same day that I realized my checks were missing and deposited into some else account.
I have contacted the fraud department and they refuse to return my money. How can I make the bank liable for this?
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 It's not possible to explain the apparent change in procedure at your bank or the bank's refusal to treat this incident responsibly. Six months is entirely too long for such a significant claim to go unresolved.
You should go back to the branch in person, with copies of all the paperwork you have received, and ask to have this mess resolved at once. Do not relinquish your only copies of your correspondence. If you cannot get immediate resolution, ask for two pieces of information: (1) the name and mailing address for the bank's chief executive officer, and (2) the name and address of the bank's principal federal regulator. If you can't get the regulator's name and address, use the Bank Find website.
Write a letter of complaint to the bank's chief executive officer, and indicate that you are sending a copy to the federal regulator you identified. Make sure you describe the problem completely, and ask that it be resolved promptly.
One last piece of advice. Given the amount in question, we are surprised that you have not enlisted legal assistance yet. It may cost you something to get an attorney involved in this mess, but it may be the only way for you to recover your money if the bank won't budge.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 9/08/08
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