Willis and Adria

03.31.09 7:45am

Yes, we too were ID theft victims… could we be again?

A few years ago our checking account was attacked for thousands of dollars.  Someone deposited phony checks into our account and then made subsequent withdrawals in relation to the phony balance. Amazingly, the thieves misspelled our names on their made up phony checks, but the bank failed to notice!  As soon as those phony checks bounced the correct balance reappeared and our account experienced a nuclear melt-down.  Any way, it happened over Christmas and man-o-man was that an ordeal.  The bank froze everything, even our savings account, until we came in a signed legal papers attesting to the fact that we were, in fact, victims of a crime!  It was very scary, and for over a week we could not have bought a gallon of milk if our life depended on it.

In hindsight, I believe, because they fully restored our accounts, the bank tacitly admitted that, had it been even a tiny bit alert, the caper should not have come off.

It's been a number of years since the above incident took place.  And ever since, that same bank has repeatedly attempted to "sell" us extra ID Theft protection services for our accounts.  Have things changed?  Will that bank no longer stand behind us in these types of situations?  What are the laws related to ID protection with our bank accounts?  Could the bank have left us stranded even though they were partly to blame?

Note: we're in the process of moving all of our accounts to First Tech - so I no longer worry so much.  But still, I wonder about the above questions.