Yesterday afternoon I checked my account balance on my way to go Christmas shopping and saw it was overdrawn more than $1500. I look at my online statement and see there are 2 pending transactions, one for around $1100 and the other for around $1900 that were ACH's paid to Credit One Bank. I immediately call my bank and tell them what's up and to stop payment. They sent the transactions back and said that we will know this morning if they cleared or were successfully stopped. If they are cleared and go through, I would have to sign an affidavit and possibly wait 7-10 business days to get my money back, but probably sooner. This would leave me and my husband, who is working thousands of miles away, with no money for a few days.
I woke up and checked my account and the bank had successfully returned the charges and my money was there. I set up a new account and transferred all of the money to the new account. I asked my bank if we would be able to trace the transaction to a specific person, but because it never cleared, my bank never got a trace number.
I have been skimmed before along with half the people in my neighborhood when a local gas station was compromised, but the amounts were always smaller and the thief used my debit card info. This time it was $4k, which was $1500 more than what we have to our names and the shit bag had used our checking and routing number to pay their credit card off through an ACH transaction. Needless to say I want to catch the asshole that would steal from someone a week before Christmas, but what I really want to know is how they got the info to begin with.
We have three companies that have access to our bank accounts by way of ACH. For the record I'm totally clueless about any of this so if I am using the wrong terms I would appreciate some education. Those companies are my husband's payroll for direct deposit, a truck payment through Ally, and our power bill through Gulf Power. Gulf power had a breach at one of their check drop off kiosk a few weeks ago, but they said only customers who use the kiosk would be affected and we don't. We don't even have checks or use them.
We don't own a computer and don't make risky clicks and we don't answer unknown calls and we sure as hell are careful about our online presence. I don't even use my real name on the internet and all my online transactions are done with a pre-paid visa. I thought I was pretty protected, but obviously not.
So, this morning I call Credit One Bank and after a few transfers I finally make it to someone who supposedly works at corporate in Vegas and explained the situation and that I wanted to find the culprit. She said the bank should have the trace number and I explained why they didn't. This led to a conference call with my bank and the woman at Credit One Bank. The COB lady tried to tell my bank they should have the record and my bank explained why they did not and that COB absolutely can find the account that did this and hold the individual liable and should since it is one of their customers who committed fraud. We got off the phone with my bank and the COB lady suddenly had more options for finding the account that stole my information. I explained to her that this was a major theft and it's extremely important that I know who did it and how my info was obtained because if it was through Gulf Power and they are lying about it to everyone people need to know the truth. She then said "There was also the Equifax breach" and I said "Equifax has my checking account information?!" Because I had no idea. I told her if it came from that I really want to know. She said she was sending the info to their investigative team and would call me back today.
So here is what I want to know, Reddit. If COB doesn't give me the info or won't allow me to press charges on the thief, am I shit out of luck or are there other avenues to make something happen?
If my information was stolen and used through the Equifax breach, is there even a way to prove it and does Equifax have my checking account number? We have nothing shady in either of our names according to 4 different credit sites.
Has anyone else had something similar happen, and if so what was the outcome and how far did you take it?
Since the money was never technically stolen from my account, and only attempted, what would the charges be for someone who steals a checking account number and tries to pay off their credit cards with it to the tune of $4000?
I'm sorry this was so long and I may sound naive wanting justice, but I am tired of this shit and have the patience to take it as far as I possibly can in any way I can. Me and my husband are living paycheck to paycheck right now after a long period of layoffs and that was all the money we had. It would have cleared had I not checked my account and then could have taken up to 10 days to get back in our account. We could have gotten help from our family to make it through and we are used to being broke, but we also could have been people with no support or people who were waiting on that money to buy their kids Christmas. That's some true grinch shit. Anything y'all could advise me on would be greatly appreciated. I want to hold as many people accountable as possible, but I also want to hold myself accountable by finding out ways I may have slipped up. Thanks so much!
Submitted December 20, 2017 at 03:20PM by IGotTookThrowaway543 http://ift.tt/2z6YjGs
