I don't know whose fault this is, but someone's responsible.

The BBQ Pit
21

If I’ve got it right, #1 and #2 are correct, but Harimad B. Smith and his wife, Ms. Scammer, also bank at Muskmelon, but at a different branch. Which raises the possibility that Mr. Smith and Ms. Scammer were presenting an entirely valid check, to be covered by their entirely valid account, and the dingleberry teller pulled up the Harimad account because he/she looked it up by name and not routing number. Which is so fricking stupid as to make it laughable, but that bit of this mess had to occur whether or not Ms. Scammer is appropriately named.

mischievous

22

Um, never mind - I forgot to preview for new information before posting.

23

If she walked into the wrong bank by mistake (thinking it was the maker’s bank), then she could well have believed that she had an account there.

Not to say that scammers don’t abound in the banking world, but you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t even notice what bank they’re walking into. “Hey, it says ‘bank.’ Must be mine.”

As far as checking the routing number, I don’t believe I ever did that in the four years I was a teller. If the check had our name and logo, and the (unique) account number matched in the computer, I considered it a done deal.

24

I thought that at first too–I’ve gone so far as get in line behind my friend when we go to her bank before realizing what I’ve done. But the bank of this woman is in an entirely different part of the state, and doesn’t even have branches here. (I’m in Louisiana, btw, and we seem to have a lot of regional banks. When I opened my bank account, I chose a branch of a national bank, even though I’d been warned against that particular bank. Personally, I’ve never had a problem with them.) She may have been confused or mistaken rather than lying.

That’s all I know about it. It’s quite possible I’m getting something wrong, though.

25

I guess, because it makes little sense.

But at any rate, the teller was a moron for not having checked all relevant information for accuracy.

26

Sorry to bring this up, but it happened again. Same woman, at another branch of the same bank, same situation. This time for a higher amount. I have concluded that the people at that bank are just idiots. Payday is Friday, and Mom is taking her check and moving to a different bank.

27

I sure don’t blame her for moving her account. Sounds like that bank isn’t really looking out for its customers.

28

What f*ing morons!!!

Has the bank made good on either theft? Have the police been involved? This seems more like intentional criminal activity than a simple screwup!!

29

The money’s OK. The original $300 has been back for some days, and Mom has been assured that no more money will be taken from her account. She was told that she’d have to speak to the city police from each town in which the incidents occurred. Well, that’s not so bad at home, but the other town is 130 miles away. Supposedly she wouldn’t be able to just call the police about it; she’d have to go in to the police station physically to talk to them about it.

I’m sure it’s intentional. The thieving bitch saw that she got away with it, so she tried it again. What I can’t fathom is how it happened again. I would have thought some procedure would be in place to prevent another occurrence, but I guess I was wrong.

30

Not to be paranoid (alright, it’s kinda my hobby, but you don’t need to take it up), but I’d also keep an eagle eye on my credit reports, and possibly put a 90 day flag on those as well. (The credit agencies will flag the report and call your mom for permission if there’s any activity on the account.)

I’d also call the police in the 130 miles away town, and ask if the local cops can take the report and send it over. They can’t seriously expect her to make a four hour round-trip to report the bank’s screw up. Oh, and on that note, I think the bank president/CEO needs a letter from mom. Because I can pretty much guarantee that he/she doesn’t know what’s going on.

31

Good idea! I’ll tell her all this, in case she hasn’t thought of it. Seems, though, from what she told me, that the faraway cops do expect her to come in. Completely crazy. It’s the thief who has time to wander around the state, not Mom.

As for the paranoia, I feel that some people aren’t paranoid enough. Mom worries about me, but doesn’t give much thought to herself.

32

Tell her to call them. Ask for the watch commander, if it’s a big town. Ask the watch commander if she can work out some alternative to the trip. If she doesn’t like the answer, keep going up the chain – the captain, lieutenant, assistant chief, chief. If it’s a small town, tell her to ask for the chief directly. Explain the situation to him or her, and the chief may be able to help. If she lives in a relatively small town and/or has a good relationship with the local cops, have her go in and ask them call. Persistence is the key. Good luck.

33

Wow, this lady is a piece of work. The authorities will catch up to her soon enough. Any news on the case?

My husband had a scare earlier this week with our bank (credit union). He had recently paid off a bank-owned credit card and he had a zero balance on it. We have decided it is for emergencies only as we’re trying to pay down our credit debt before October hits and the MMP goes up.

You can see all transactions on all loans and credit cards through our credit union’s website. He noticed that his no-balance card had about $50 missing from it. When he looked more closely the charges were from Great Britain. He checked through all of his bills and double-checked for anything he may have signed up for, but found nothing (he keeps very detailed records of his transactions, he’s excellent with money).

The next day he made a trip to the credit union during his lunch hour, they immediately closed the credit card and issued him a new one, they reversed the charges, and are running an investigation. That’s how banks are supposed to handle these situations, immediately.

I’m glad your mother’s money has been returned and I’m very happy she’s moving her funds to a different bank. The issue should have been dealt with immediately and there’s no excuse for them waiting. Are your parents on a fixed-income? If so, I can see how badly this could have spiraled out of control.

Keep us updated. And yes, the people at her bank are real jack-asses and this was entirely their fault.

34

Yep. I worked as a teller for 4 years, and I can tell you that these people always get caught. Always.

We had a woman cash a bad check for $800 once. Turns out that she had cashed stolen checks totalling over $10,000. She got caught at another branch when she was cashing a stolen check. For $75.

35

Talked to Mom today but didn’t have enough time to ask, as we literally only spoke for a minute. I’ll ask when I call her back.

36

Keep us updated!

37

My bank screw-up stories:
First one - I had around $700 stolen from my bank account. I suspect the manager of the apartment complex I was living in at the time. She had access to signed cheques from me for my rent, complete with bank branch, account number, my signature, and she knew when there would be a large amount in the account (the money was stolen right when the rent, a similar amount, was due). I went to the bank when my rent cheque bounced due to lack of funds when I knew I had the rent covered in the bank; the bank showed me the signature of the woman who had impersonated me, and I told them it was not my signature. The scammer hadn’t paid enough attention; I loop my 'a’s under, she looped it over. Not a match with my on-file signature card. The bank refunded my money immediately, called the police themselves, and started the fraud investigation. I had to go to the police and make a statement. I never heard anything about this again.

My second story with bank incompetence was when a person paid their bills at my branch, and the bank took their payments out of my account because they had the same account number, but a different transit number, as their account was with a different branch. This happened two times. The second time, I told them what had probably happened, they told me that would never happen, I said it had happened before, they looked into it, and sure enough, the tellers had made the same mistake twice.

Morals of my stories? Banks make mistakes all the time. We must be ever-vigilant to look after our own money. And don’t use cheques to buy anything unless you absolutely have to.

38

Yay! Bank screwup stories!

I have one. I had made out my mortgage check to my mortgage co. as I did every month, for $1100. Suddenly I had a shortage of money (I really don’t keep good track) so I went over the bank account and it turned out the mtg. check number was attached to a different amount–$1700.

However, the mortgage co. showed they had only received the usual, $1100.

Now, I am one of the few people who still gets my actual checks back, so I dug it out. And sure enough it had been altered. For some odd reason my checks at the time were kind of beige but the places to write in the amounts were white blocks. And someone had whited out the second “1” on my check and changed it to a “7.” It wasn’t too obvious until you held the check up to the light–any light–and then you could see the blob of whiteout.

All evidence pointed to someone at the bank. Mainly because (1) the mortgage co. obviously had received no particular benefit from this, and (2) the line below where I handwrote the amount had NOT been altered (and this is the one they are supposed to use in case of any discrepancies, or at least that’s my understanding). It seemed to me to be obviously a case of someone at my bank altering my check, thinking that it would never be traceable because I would only get a photocopy and it wouldn’t show, and there would only ever be a photocopy for evidence.

But the bank gave me a bad time and said no, it couldn’t be. Meanwhile I was also pestering the mortgage co., who also gave me a bad time.

I had to take a lot of time off work, go down to the bank, actually show them the check (and then they wanted to keep it and give me, you guessed it, a photocopy). They actually mentioned that I could have altered the check myself–right, except for the actual amount of money that left my account.

Nasty letter, cc’ing the entire universe of state banking officials, and suddenly the money was back in my account. Along with a letter stating that, basically, they were only being nice to me because I’d made a lot of noise but that they were not at fault.

Well, somebody was.

Shortly thereafter (within 6 months I think) the mtg. co had other problems and my mortgage loan ended up elsewhere so maybe it was someone there after all, or people at both places working in collusion? I believe the bank is to blame in any case, though.

39

All is cleared up now, I believe.