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Home >> Scams/Fraud
How to Check for Accounts of Church being Scammed
I am a private investigator licensed in California. I have a client, a church, who did not secure their EIN number. Through an informant I have located seven (7) bank accounts, checking with no interest, that used the church’s EIN number, but did not list any of the church officials as signers and the bank statements were not sent to the church. The church recovered the assets and canceled the accounts. The informant insists that there is an additional account with a substantial amount of fundraising assets in the account. The informant does not know the name of the bank.
Is there some central clearing house that the church officials could contact and determine all bank accounts that used their EIN? I wrote the IRS and they replied that they had no suggestions. I wrote the FTC and they have not responded. I wrote my congressman requesting him to force the FTC to answer, but to no avail.
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 It's certainly unlikely that the FTC will have an answer, either. The bank holding the account doesn't register the account information anywhere but in its records. Unless the bank knows that someone's looking for the account, it can't respond (and if it does learn of the search, it is most unlikely to respond without being compelled to do so through legal action).
It might be helpful for the church's governing body itself to write letters to area banks providing at least minimal background on the problem, and asking that any bank with an account in the church's name simply respond that further inquiry might bear fruit. That could give the church a target for further investigation. There's no guarantee it will work, but it is worth an effort.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 6/09/10
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