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Crap. Any Advice?

chainer

chainer

Member
Joined
May 5, 2008
Messages
821
Location
Nashua, New Hampshire
So I just got a call an hour ago from my bank (Yep, must be good news!), and it appears someone has somehow gotten my credit card information along with my debit and pin number... Someone in Pennsylvania decided to run up my account and withdraw all my money. I'm confused, because I live in NH, and I haven't made any charges to my card online, hardly ever. I've been told it is possible someone watched me input my pin and somehow got my account number, and then eventually it made its way there...

I suppose to a degree I'm lucky, since I'm broke in the first place, that they only managed to get (what appears to be) ~1,000+ dollars out of my account before sovereign closed it. Being 19 and in college, having this money gone or on freeze really sucks. Next term starts soon and I was about to order books, which now is looking impossible.

I was wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation -- How long does it take to recover funds if someone steals your pin number? Obviously I am having the accounts closed, have clipped my cards, and have transferred the remaining few dollars out to my account at a different bank. My accounts that have been jeopardized were with Sovereign. Most people are telling me that my money will be returned to me (here's praying), so I'm hoping this is the case. Fortunately, I've already purchased Christmas presents for the family (including my SS on CP!), and this semester is already paid off.

Any advice on the next step?
 
Sorry to hear about you being "taken on a ride" ... I was too when I was with my ex-fiancee, we had a joint account, so she "legally" raped my account :laugh:

Hopefully the bank can track down the bastage and you can recieve full compensation for any unauthorized useage of your CC.

Nick
 
Make sure a police report is filed. They may not do much investigating, but you may need it down the line.

Sorry to hear of this. :(
 
Make sure that your card is reimbursable. The dirty secret of debit cards is that many of them are tied directly to your checking account, have Mastercard or Visa on them only as an affront, and are not reimbursable. Most credit cards have liabilities only up to 50 bucks and that is usually waived by the CC company. But, debit cards, especially ones backed by smaller home town banks, are not backed by anything but your checking account funds. Most people have no idea until they're taken.
 
That really sucks, it is a huge timewaster to redo everything. Here's hoping they get 'em even though they probably won't.
 
Had it happen to me.
The bank will be bringing in the investigative authorities. It took about a week for all of the funds to be deposited back into my account, and the bank gave me new cards with a new bank account number. They were really good about it all. Not sure if your bank will work under the same time line or not, but you should be back up and running before you know it. Go and talk to your local branch manager like we did. She was very helpful in answering our questions. Plus she worked with headquarters to keep us posted.
 
jfields said:
Had it happen to me.
The bank will be bringing in the investigative authorities. It took about a week for all of the funds to be deposited back into my account, and the bank gave me new cards with a new bank account number. They were really good about it all. Not sure if your bank will work under the same time line or not, but you should be back up and running before you know it. Go and talk to your local branch manager like we did. She was very helpful in answering our questions. Plus she worked with headquarters to keep us posted.
Click to expand...

Pretty much EXACTLY how it's going to happen. Also, to expedite the process, you will want to talk to your nearest Police Department and file a Identity Theft Report without suspect info. You'll need current copies of your bank statements and account numbers, checking numbers, and the fradulent transactions.

If they try to "kiss it" off and tell you the crime occurred in PA, and you're in NH, tell them to pound sand and that you demand a report. Identity theft and electronic crime reports like these are a bitch to write, but I hate it when I see Officers kiss them off and pass off the victim to another agency. Don't take no for an answer.

Once you have your Police Report, contact your bank and advise them you have reported it to the authoritah, and this will expedite your waiting process. Like JFields said, you'll be back on your feet in a week as long as you didn't make the suspect transactions, and your account is insured against fraud.


Good luck Chainer, you have ANY questions, feel free to call me up. PM me for further details, and if I can, I'll see what I can do on my end over here in sunny CA. ;) :thumbs:
 
souldog24ca said:
jfields said:
Had it happen to me.
The bank will be bringing in the investigative authorities. It took about a week for all of the funds to be deposited back into my account, and the bank gave me new cards with a new bank account number. They were really good about it all. Not sure if your bank will work under the same time line or not, but you should be back up and running before you know it. Go and talk to your local branch manager like we did. She was very helpful in answering our questions. Plus she worked with headquarters to keep us posted.
Click to expand...

Pretty much EXACTLY how it's going to happen. Also, to expedite the process, you will want to talk to your nearest Police Department and file a Identity Theft Report without suspect info. You'll need current copies of your bank statements and account numbers, checking numbers, and the fradulent transactions.

If they try to "kiss it" off and tell you the crime occurred in PA, and you're in NH, tell them to pound sand and that you demand a report. Identity theft and electronic crime reports like these are a bitch to write, but I hate it when I see Officers kiss them off and pass off the victim to another agency. Don't take no for an answer.

Once you have your Police Report, contact your bank and advise them you have reported it to the authoritah, and this will expedite your waiting process. Like JFields said, you'll be back on your feet in a week as long as you didn't make the suspect transactions, and your account is insured against fraud.


Good luck Chainer, you have ANY questions, feel free to call me up. PM me for further details, and if I can, I'll see what I can do on my end over here in sunny CA. ;) :thumbs:
Click to expand...


Hey Everyone,

Thanks for the swift and VERY helpful advice. The thought of involving the police hadn't even occurred to me, and it's probably the best step to take. After sitting through several phone banks (sigh), I found that Sovereign Debit cards are in fact backed by either Sovereign or Visa, so that is good news, however I didn't get a time frame, or a helpful explanation of what to do next. Thank goodness for my cigar smoking brethren!

Jon, everyone, thanks so much for the info. I'll be writing this down to help organize my thoughts, having my bank account pillaged really feels like garbage. What a junk phone call to receive.

Don't know what I'd do without everyone's advice here... Just found out that my roommate also has had someone attempt to open up a bank account in his name in Pen. as well. I can't figure out what is going on, hopefully there will be some explanation down the road.

Thanks again,
Rob
 
I'm so glad you were covered. You may also want to consider putting a credit hold on your Credit through the reporting agencies. Many states provide this free of charge. It will not allow anyone to apply for credit in your name. You never know what these scumbags have access to now. Here's some step by step instructions from Clark Howard's website.

http://clarkhoward.com/topics/credit_freeze_states.html

I see by reading this that it's free if you're the victim of ID theft with a police report. It takes a little time but it's worth it for the peace of mind. Good luck, brother!

Edited to add info.
 
Happened to me. I had the money back provisionally the same day. Once the investigation by the bank was over, the provision was removed.

Be sure to file a report with all three credit agencies. They can also at your request put restrictions to new credit in your file that deny instant credit. Someone from the issuing company has to contact you and verify your identity before any new credit can be granted.
 
I had this happen to me once with my Debit card through Bank of America. Luckily, I wasn't 21 at that point, and the guy that got my number was out buying Alcohol, so my bank locked it after the first $450.

After a couple months, they gave me that money back -- they will almost always do this if they can conclusively determine that it was not in fact you making the purchases.

Ironically, the guy that took mine worked at a GameStop, and stole the card number when I was in there pre-ordering a game. I tied 2 and 2 togethor when the bank told me where he was found. :rolleyes:
 
Ugaman72 said:
Make sure that your card is reimbursable. The dirty secret of debit cards is that many of them are tied directly to your checking account, have Mastercard or Visa on them only as an affront, and are not reimbursable. Most credit cards have liabilities only up to 50 bucks and that is usually waived by the CC company. But, debit cards, especially ones backed by smaller home town banks, are not backed by anything but your checking account funds. Most people have no idea until they're taken.
Click to expand...

Hmm this is what I do for a living is file fraud reports and try and prevent fruad I have never heard of a bank that will not return the funds as long as you report them as fraud some banks are harder to work with then others. some Require a filled police report some also make you call the merchant first and try and get them to refund it. But I can not name one bank that will not investigate this and then refund the charge as long as it is found to be fraud. What bank are you refering to do you have you had them do this if so change banks!

As for what you need to do about the charges

1 File a Local Police Report
2 Also file Police Report where the charges were made
3 Make sure your bank is investigating how the info got out on there end Cause if you have the card in your hand how did someone get your card # card # are not prented on Reciptes any longer
4 Watch your other accounts like a Hawk
5 Watch your credit report if they had your card and pin who knows what else they have
6 go here there is a lot of Good info Gov. ID Theft Page
 
Petthefish,
My info may have been outdated. I just remembered getting my first debit card from my regional bank many years ago. It was just a debit card, issued by the bank, and did not have a credit feature backed by Visa or Mastercard. At that time, it wasn't backed by anything. For a year or so I made sure my balance was under a couple hundred dollars. I guess times have changed. I know my card from that same bank is backed through Visa, now. Good to know that banks cover this now. Hopefully my credit freeze info will not be outdated as well. Thanks for setting me straight.
 
I had almost the exact same situation not more than three months ago. Apparently, I went buck wild buying gas in Tampa in spite of the fact I was in Tennessee at the time. As a young person with a low account balance, don't be surprised if your reimbursement takes a longer than a week. An employee at my former bank actually asked me, loosely quoting, "Are you sure you weren't in Tampa?"

Us young folk sure are sneaky and we know the secret to teleporation. Who knows what we might try?

Beam Me Up,

Mark
 
Rodrigo de Jerez said:
I had almost the exact same situation not more than three months ago. Apparently, I went buck wild buying gas in Tampa in spite of the fact I was in Tennessee at the time. As a young person with a low account balance, don't be surprised if your reimbursement takes a longer than a week. An employee at my former bank actually asked me, loosely quoting, "Are you sure you weren't in Tampa?"

Us young folk sure are sneaky and we know the secret to teleporation. Who knows what we might try?

Beam Me Up,

Mark
Click to expand...

Heh, thanks for the heads up Mark, and again to everyone else. I am expecting to be given the run-around a bit once they see me in person, being 19 and all. Hopefully this won't be the case.

I will certainly be referring back to this page, there is a wealth of knowledge and some great links. Thanks everyone, I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I'd be really confused right now if not for you all.
 
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