Fraud Alert - hold on to your money!

[Margot]

Keep a close watch on your bank statements. Be alert for all types of fraud.

I hear so much about high-tech identity theft these days that I sometimes forget criminals still pull off old-school crimes like check forgery.

Some crook just forged a check on my account. I went to the bank to find out what to do about it. I have to go my local police department, file a report, go back in a couple of days to get a copy of the report, take it to the bank, and file some more paperwork there. The good news is, after all that work, I get my money back.

If the same thing happens to you, file a police report right away. I don’t know how it is in your state or country, but in Tennessee, you have to take action within 30 days or kiss the money goodbye.

[Librarian]

Dang Margot! What a pain! I never understand how folks get away with writing bad checks. I always have to show ID, etc. But you hear about it frequently.

[texasgal]

Lib, that's so true!

Margot, I'm so sorry this happened to you. Fortunately, you acted fast and, in the end, will have been a major inconvenience. Major yes, but you'll be reimbursed, thank goodness.

[Remi]

Make sure you check your credit report as well! You can do it for free if you think someone has used your info fraudulently. Put a fraud alert on your account with at least one of the major credit reporting agencies as well!

We've had similar things happen to us... three times in under a year. It really sucks! I'm sorry it's happened to you, Margot!

[thumper]

librarian said:

I never understand how folks get away with writing bad checks. I always have to show ID, etc. But you hear about it frequently.

Me neither Lib. A couple years ago someone stole checks right out of our mailbox. They managed to forge 3 or 4 before we stopped the account. All of them of course had different names.

Good thing you were on top of it, Margot. Still its a terrible pain in the ass & a horrible violation!

[Margot]

Thanks for the tips about checking my credit rating and notifying the credit reporting agencies.

On another forum I belong to, some suggested notifying the business that received the forged check. In this case, I can't do that. It won't do any good because that business is the fraudulent party.

The check is made out to a non-existent company called "Go Technologies." Their "customer service" number appears in the blank on the bottom. When you call the number, you get a message saying the voice mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages.

At my bank, they said this is a common form of check forgery. The business that accepted the check had no need to verify the identity of the check writer because the business was perpetuating the crime. Very clever.

I will get the missing money in about a week. Meanwhile, thank God today was payday ... my husband and I have been having wacky, mismatched meals for a week because, after the forgery, we didn't have enough money for groceries. We had food on hand, but not stuff you would normally put together.

Now we have a story to tell the kids whenever we have them.

Take care and be careful,
Margot
>^._.^<

[flygirl2000]

Margot, this is just terrible. I'm glad that things are working out in the end. I'm curious, did the crooks steal your checks or ID?

[Margot]

FlyGirl,

Neither my identity nor my checkbook were stolen.

The check that was used was several years old. It was check number 2965, and I'm in the 5000s now. IRS guidelines advise people to keep financial records for seven years. I probably used check 2965 about nine years ago. I've shredded or burned all my records from that far back, so I can't even look to see what I originally wrote the check for.

At the police station, they said they way this usually works is that you pay a bill or buy something in a store, a shifty employee makes a copy, holds onto it for several years, and then uses a checkwriting machine to wire money out of your account. They tell me this happens all the time.

I went to the police precinct closest to my home to file the report. It's a small office, so the first guy I encountered took my info, which took about an hour, but if I'd gone to the city's central precinct, I would have had to wait in line in the fraud department and it could have taken all day since so many people are filing similar claims.