My girlfriend had to open a new account with her bank because checks in her name were being presented to be cashed and she had all of the blank checks of the ones written. The bank closed that account and gave her a new account number last month. This month, $2900 was deposited into her account, wrong account; they corrected this. Today $800 dollars worth of checks are at the bank. Funny part, she has all of her new checks with her. None have been written from this account. What should she do besides go to another bank? Is this a possible case of idenity theft?
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It's difficult to say for certain that your friend's identity has been stolen, although forgery is a form of ID theft -- use of an element of someone's identity (a name or signature) fraudulently. It's possible that someone at the bank saw the checks drawn on the old account and attempted to post them to the new account without understanding the reason for the account number change. Your friend should give the bank the opportunity to recredit her account for any funds removed. The forged checks can't properly be charged to either the new account or the old one; they should have been returned unpaid. Then, if the bank doesn't properly handle any additional checks drawn on the old account, she should consider strongly establishing a new account with another financial institution. If she does so, she should get in writing from the old bank a confirmation that her old account is closed and that she is not responsible for any checks presented against it.
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It's difficult to say for certain that your friend's identity has been stolen, although forgery is a form of ID theft -- use of an element of someone's identity (a name or signature) fraudulently. It's possible that someone at the bank saw the checks drawn on the old account and attempted to post them to the new account without understanding the reason for the account number change. Your friend should give the bank the opportunity to recredit her account for any funds removed. The forged checks can't properly be charged to either the new account or the old one; they should have been returned unpaid. Then, if the bank doesn't properly handle any additional checks drawn on the old account, she should consider strongly establishing a new account with another financial institution. If she does so, she should get in writing from the old bank a confirmation that her old account is closed and that she is not responsible for any checks presented against it.
