digg justice
public comments | contact me | home page

WaMu Gave Grandma's Money to Crooks

special announcements

New York Times Reporting on ICT

The article appeared on May 21, 2007.

click here for more info

Monday, March 06, 2006
Check #1
With grandma's permission, here is the first check printed by the scammers and processed by WaMu to withdraw funds from grandma's account. I've black-barred my grandma's personal information and some numbers on the check to protect her identity as much as possible.



The three black bars at the upper right conceal her name and address (which was not entirely correct -- her apartment number was missing.) She said that they had her account number when they called.

Note: this is not a check from grandma's checkbook, there is no signature, no check like this had even been used by my grandma before, the check was printed by the scammers themselves, it was cashed at bank in Cleveland -- on the other side of the country. Yet WaMu still transferred the funds out of my grandma's account and called the transaction legitimate.

comments:

Those people SUCK!

I'm sorry that happened to your grandma.

P@
www.rootsrocklive.com
you would think wamu would no the diffrence Duh its own checks good or bad
Sorry about you're grandma, but most of your logic is wrong. Absolutely anything can be used as a check. You could write one on a cow and the bank would have to honor it,
I don't think it's faulty logic so much as a simple misconception. I'm not necessarily surprised to discover that I can write a check on a cow and the bank would have to honor it. (Believe, as soon as I get hold of a cow, I'm going to write a check on it for cash and take it to my nearest Washington Mutual branch.) What I am surprised to learn is that any crook, criminal, or con man can write a check in my name and cash it. I understand now that this is a "legal instrument" called a "demand draft". After discovering how this instrument is being abused against to take money from the checking accounts of my grandma and others without their informed consent, I think this is a practice that needs to be changed.
My daughter closed her $2,000. savings account at WA Mutual Bank and was NEVER asked for any ID. She asked and received it all in cash. I called the bank manager & was told this was a new employee. Sad to think some one else could have taken my daughters money. SHAME ON THEM !!
Good thing it was your daughter. Otherwise, she'd probably have a hell of a time getting her money back.
This day and age you have to be very careful. I bank with columbia and although I am SURE people have had issues with this bank they sometimes block my debit card because they think it has too much action on it. Hopefully washington mutual with up their training and not hire dumbasses!!!!
You know it's not that big of a deal, all you gotta do is tell the bank you never authorized the charge, go down and sign a fraud report and they put your money back and launch an investigation. Happened to me once, some dirtbag stole a check from the back of my checkbook and wrote it to himself. The bank showed me a copy of the check, I said it was not my signature, I signed a document that said I was the victim of fraud, and my money was back in my account that day. American Express is even better, they will actually reverse transactions out of the merchant's account if you want them to. I've done that 3 times already when I was overcharged. The consumer is pretty well protected, you just have to go down and deal with it.
Today I tried to view my checking account on line.
Unfortunately I was asked to provide 3 personal security questions with 3 personal security answers, however I could not read the sentences listed on the menu, and therefore cannot answer the questions. Maybe it's my computer, but I doubt it.
Does anyone have the questions so I can get on with my life-Thanks
Does anyone have the questions so I can get on with my life?

I would just call your bank's customer support -- they usually have an alternate way to verify your identity.

It's good that your bank is doing this -- that is, if it's really adding some security and not just a nuisance. I wonder if Wamu has started applying rules like this to the con artists sending in other people's check.
Who are these people that make up these fake checks??? I'd like to know. Because it happened to me.
even worse. Now with Wamu allowing people to make accounts online without ever stepping foot inside a bank it makes id theft and fraud even easier. I had someone open an account in my name with my ss# and dl# and then wrote a bunch of bad checks
Post a Comment