someone used my bank account to pay their bills

[kellya137]

I noticed yesterday on my Chase bank account statement that somebody was paying their cable bills and telephone bills from my account (by phone, using the account number and the routing number). unfortunately i had not been checking my statements very thoroughly and it turns out this was going on since january of 2009! i lost a total of $3,755 in increments of under $250. the bank will not pay anything but the first transaction ($122) because they say it was my responsibility to check my statements and alert them.

is there anything i can do to try and get this money back? i have the phone number of the person who has been doing it. do i go to my local precinct? if i file a report is there any possibility they will actually follow up on it? is there any way to get money from the vendors who allowed people to pay with my account number? (they obviously didn't need to provide any other information like my social security number or anything). this is very frustrating. any help much appreciated.

kellya

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I'm sorry to hear - this is a very difficult, unfortunate problem. If the bank was the victim of fraud and all the information was correct for transfer, then the bank may not have liability. You need to determine whether the bank should have known that this was a fraudulent transaction. If they didn't and all the access numbers matched, then it is difficult to fault the bank and their response would be the appropriate one.

I would report the incident to the police and it would seem simple to determine who is the guilty party - after all, utilities bills are in someone's name. I would ask the police what to do and it might involve also contacting the utilities companies about the fraud as well. You should bring all the documentation you have to the precinct and file the report. This is not just a civil case but a criminal one as well.

These are just my thoughts and best of luck to you. Let us know how it all turns out.

 

[kellya137]

I'm sorry to hear - this is a very difficult, unfortunate problem. If the bank was the victim of fraud and all the information was correct for transfer, then the bank may not have liability. You need to determine whether the bank should have known that this was a fraudulent transaction. If they didn't and all the access numbers matched, then it is difficult to fault the bank and their response would be the appropriate one.

I would report the incident to the police and it would seem simple to determine who is the guilty party - after all, utilities bills are in someone's name. I would ask the police what to do and it might involve also contacting the utilities companies about the fraud as well. You should bring all the documentation you have to the precinct and file the report. This is not just a civil case but a criminal one as well.

These are just my thoughts and best of luck to you. Let us know how it all turns out.

thanks for this -- i'm confused about what "access codes" means. as far as i know the perpetrator just used by bank account # and the routing# from a check or a discarded bank statement ... will follow up with the police and file a report.

kelly

 

[Michael Wechsler]

thanks for this -- i'm confused about what "access codes" means. as far as i know the perpetrator just used by bank account # and the routing# from a check or a discarded bank statement ... will follow up with the police and file a report.

It amazes me that all that is needed is that in this day and age is simply two exposed items but that is what I am talking about - the numbers for access.