Identity Theft

[woeisme]

I am so mad right now, my 75 year old Mother's checking account and routing number were used on-line to pay a couple cell phone bills! To make it much worse, turns out it was a family member who did it! (my nephew's wife, my Mom had sent their son a check for his birthday and she got the routing and account number off of it). I guess she was hoping my Mom wouldn't notice $200 missing from her checking account? Or would figure it was her own math error and never question it? Has anyone else ever had a family member steal checking info, or credit cards, or the like? I just want to go punch her right now, but she lives a thousand miles from here so guess I'll have to settle for venting online....

[JRScott]

Never had it happen personally but sadly a lot of ID theft is done by family and friends of the victim.

I hope your mom can get it straightened out. For Christmas and future Birthday after getting a new bank account number, just send the grandchild a treasury bond or CD or some other item that cannot be traced to her bank account. (Or Cash)

[WoodSprite]

I just want to go punch her right now, but she lives a thousand miles from here....

I think it would be worth the trip. That is SO low.

I was on jury duty last year, and they dismissed dozens and dozens of people because they couldn't find a single person who hadn't been a victim or wasn't related to a victim of identity theft. It was astonishing.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Two hundred dollars is a felony, as well as the fraudulent ID theft. You could take this to your States Attorney and because it is over the state line now becomes Federal. I would have your lawyer write a letter that you want the money back doubled as punitive. I personally wouldn't care who it was in my family, I'd let them know what they are. Thieves. 'Hub

[bcvw]

We had this happen to us. I started noticing check numbers and amounts that made no sense show up as debits from our checking account when I looked at the account online. I pulled up the check images and someone had actually had checks printed up with our account and routing numbers, but with another person's name and on a different bank. These checks (over 12!) were passed around stores (Gap, Home Depot, Eddie Bauer) in the Chicago and NW Indiana area. By the time all of them rolled in, it was over $1500 worth.

We rarely write checks, most of our payments are done electronically, so it was relatively easy to figure what happened. My wife had written a check to Lia Sophia (based in suburban Chicago) for shipping and handling on a piece of jewelry she had replaced. Someone who worked there sold or gave the number to a identity thief.

All the funds were returned to us immediately upon reporting them to the CU, but we did have to close the account and open a new one - with a new account number that was only incremented by one. I thought that was silly.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

My mother wanted a couple of my kids ssn # so she could buy a treasury bond for them. I told her we were not giving out our childrens ssn to anyone. Mom had been through difficult times.. you just never know what people will do if they get desperate... I told her open a savings account and put the kids name on it..

[Flamingo]

I am so mad right now, my 75 year old Mother's checking account and routing number were used on-line to pay a couple cell phone bills! To make it much worse, turns out it was a family member who did it! (my nephew's wife, my Mom had sent their son a check for his birthday and she got the routing and account number off of it). I guess she was hoping my Mom wouldn't notice $200 missing from her checking account? Or would figure it was her own math error and never question it? Has anyone else ever had a family member steal checking info, or credit cards, or the like? I just want to go punch her right now, but she lives a thousand miles from here so guess I'll have to settle for venting online....

Your relative has committed theft and unless you confront her for reimbursement of the amount she will continue to try to get away with it. Some people would not take this lightly at all, family member or not. How would you feel if it was your own checking account and not that of your mother? Hope you changed your mother's checking account number and/or bank. You may also want to put fraud alerts on her credit reports in the event your relative has more up her sleeve or sold the information.

[woeisme]

Actually, I'm more ticked about it being my Mom's account than if they had done it to us. My Mom is 75, lives on a fixed income (less than $1200/month) and would have given the girl the $ if she had asked!!! But my Mom went to the bank, they reimbursed her the money since she's banked with them forever, and changed her account. What the authorities will do to my nephew's wife is anyone's guess. We're in Ohio and she's in Arizona, so I guess it's up to them now. My Mom is going to send money orders or giftcards for presents for the grandkids and great-grandkids now, I'm ticked enough to never send them anything! Thanks for the idea about fraud alert. Don't think she could have a SS# or any additional info and now the account is closed, but it never hurts to be careful I guess!

[magyar123]

Personally I think that when you/your mom noticed these transactions were NOT made by her, you/she should have contacted the bank, disputed the transactions as not hers. The bank would have been required to investigate and reversed the items.

[woeisme]

Personally I think that when you/your mom noticed these transactions were NOT made by her, you/she should have contacted the bank, disputed the transactions as not hers. The bank would have been required to investigate and reversed the items.

Actually, that's exactly what my Mom did. the bank gave her the money back, and were the ones that told my Mom who did the transaction, which totally shocked my Mom. She's not out any money, and her account number has since been changed, I'm ticked because apparently my nephew's wife thinks it's ok to try to steal from my Mom. Like I said, now it's the cell phone and bank's problem, and I don't know if they will go after her for fraud or not, but my Mom doesn't plan to do anything else at this point, not even tell my nephew (her grandson) about what happened (maybe he'll find out when the police come investigating his wife?) because my Mom is afraid that if she says anything it will mean even less contact with her greatgrandkids than she already has (she sees them maybe once a year).

[Flamingo]

Actually, that's exactly what my Mom did. the bank gave her the money back, and were the ones that told my Mom who did the transaction, which totally shocked my Mom. She's not out any money, and her account number has since been changed, I'm ticked because apparently my nephew's wife thinks it's ok to try to steal from my Mom. Like I said, now it's the cell phone and bank's problem, and I don't know if they will go after her for fraud or not, but my Mom doesn't plan to do anything else at this point, not even tell my nephew (her grandson) about what happened (maybe he'll find out when the police come investigating his wife?) because my Mom is afraid that if she says anything it will mean even less contact with her greatgrandkids than she already has (she sees them maybe once a year).

Every family has the one person that stands out from all the others as to either something like this (family theft), drugs, alchohol, etc., etc. yet everyone is afraid to do something about it because it's "family.". In our family we have a 30 year old relative on and off drugs and alcohol, continues to get his wife pregnant and his wife will not go to work - wants to be taken care of. He has a hard time holding jobs. Won't listen to anyone and will not go back to school. So everyone in the family consistently gets calls for help to turn on the electricity, send food or money for food and the babies always need something. All of us have learned long ago not to send them cash cause it goes for everything else but bills. In fact, most have stop even helping. One person has totally stopped everything because they are owed so much money that they loaned out to them. We've learned to send the kids winter coats in the mail instead of a gift card or money because the kids would never see any of it. Tell your Mom to either send a hard physical gift next time because even gift cards and money orders can be intercepted by your relative. There is probably more going on in that household than you want to know if someone would actually use a family member's checking account number to pay their own bills.