About a month later I was paying some bills on line and noticed that there was a new checking account under my first name only, with a deposit of $50.00. When I called the bank to inquire, I was told the account had been opened in Tennessee. No money was taken from our accounts at the time. The bank froze de fraudulent account and placed red flags on both my and my husband’s profiles. I filed a police report for my protection. I also filed a claim with the bank. I requested hard copies of the documents and information used to open the account. Somebody had used a fake CA Driver License with the wrong first name and my Social Security Number. The account was opened under my first name only (no last name). I have never lost my Driver License, and my Social Security card is in a safe overseas! I told the bank it looked like it had been an inside job and their reply was that I could not know who else had that information. NOBODY ELSE AT THE TIME. We kept using our old address for several months.

I thought that was it but kept cheking my accounts online. I even called the bank again to make sure that the red flags on our information were in place.

A month after I discovered the first fraudulent account I realized that $8,000.- had been withdrawn from our account at a branch in Connecticut and another cheking account had been opened under my name with that money. Later that day the thieves had taken $4000.- from that account. They also opened a savings account. I called the bank immediately. They froze the fraudulent accounts right away but did nothing to my accounts. It took me three hours to be able to freeze our accounts as well so that the thieves would not be able to empty our accounts early in the morning on the East Coast (we live on the West Coast). Their calling centers kept closing and I was not able to talk to someone live until 12:10 am the following day. I was told we would have to go to a branch office the following morning with two forms of ID. It took us more than the two forms of ID and over an hour to be able to wirthdraw all our money from the bank. We did receive the money that was stolen from us a few days later. I filed another police report, and three more claims with the bank regarding the money that had been stolen and the two fraudulent accounts that had been opened under my name. Needless to say, we are banking elsewhere. Again I told them it was an inside job, again I was dismissed. Again I requested hard copies of the transactions. This time they used a fake CA Drived license with the wrong first name, my SS# and a dummy ATM card from Bank of America with my real number. The card was fake and they did not swipe it. All this time my real card was in my wallet. And they still refused to acknowledge that it was an inside job.

About a week later, we received a letter regarding yet another fraudulent cheking account but this time it had been opened under my husband’s name. He was out of the country at the time and it took me several hours to be able to file a claim regarding the fraud under his name. And yet, somebody was able to open an acount under his name even with red flags on his profile.

I hope this does not happen to anyone else.