I need some help ASAP, identity fraud.

[DrewDevil]

Red, this is plain ol' forgery, not "identity fraud." You should be able to get your money back. Call your bank asap and tell them to freeze your account, then go first thing tomorrow morning and cancel the account and open a new one. Make a claim for all the lost $$$ and DEFINITELY file a police report as well.

Good luck.

[FocusedOne]

I thought most banks will keep videos that they record for two weeks. This happened to someone I know in college and they looked when the checks were cashed, checked the tape, and caught the guy. Even if I am making that up I do know that the bank is definitely going to actively investigate such a large amount of money.

I'm guessing the whorish cleaning lady from the office cleaning service has $15,000 worth of new [censored] in her house at the moment. What a thieving skank.

[4_2_it]

1) Notify bank freeze account
2) Call cops. Having a police report will will give you documentation for the bank
3) Go to the bank in person and talk to the branch manager. Be polite, but persistent about getting your money returned.
4) If you have any problems with your bank, talk to a lawyer. The bank is responsible for not cashing forged checks.

It's not hard to order blank checks on the Internet as long as you have an account number and bank routing number.

[Chrisman886]

[ QUOTE ]

2) Call cops. Having a police report will will give you documentation for the bank

[/ QUOTE ]

Good advice. This is a very important step but many people don't realize they should do this.

[Oliver Nipples]

If you used Bank of America, you'd have your 15K back already. Hopefully Chase is similar.

[miajag]

[ QUOTE ]

As for the checks, they were kept in a droor in my office, and I have no idea how someone could have gotten them.


[/ QUOTE ]

I bet someone went in your office, opened the drawer, and took the checks.

Seriously though, that sucks, call the cops, then call the bank (or better yet go in to a branch) and ask to see the manager/etc. and it will likely be sorted out. Happened to a friend of mine a year or so ago, it took a while but she got her money back.

[TxRedMan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

As for the checks, they were kept in a droor in my office, and I have no idea how someone could have gotten them.


[/ QUOTE ]

I bet someone went in your office, opened the drawer, and took the checks.

Seriously though, that sucks, call the cops, then call the bank (or better yet go in to a branch) and ask to see the manager/etc. and it will likely be sorted out. Happened to a friend of mine a year or so ago, it took a while but she got her money back.

[/ QUOTE ]

After a few resourceful phone calls and a bit of work, I've learned that the person who cashed the checks works for a company that was contracted to do maintenance work on the building I have an office in. They're a very large company. Apparently he might have been a 'temp' worker for this firm. There were only two people who had keys to my office, myself and the head of maintenance for the building who was not an employee of the firm contracted for other maintenance issues. Apparently the thief got a key to my office and that's how he got the checks, but it gets worse. As with any office, there's going to be financial information all about. The thief went as far as to cover his tracks and not leave any signs of theft, and he stole something which had my signature on it because his forgery appears to have been practiced. He's compromised all of my financial information, and I'm now in the process of calling an insurmountable amount of people I do business with to inform them there's been a problem. The largest problem being that I am a broker, and it's not uncommon for me to issue twenty checks in a weeks time, and I've now had to jeopardize the financial security of people who count on my business to deliver payment in a fast manner, one of my strong suits in my particular field that adds substantial value to the service I perform.



The company that employed this guy has stepped up to the table to some extent, asking to see the checks, and assumingly will reimburse me for that amount shortly, but I'm not going to stop there. They pride themselves on having great employees and doing thorough background checks and being a company of high integrity, but one of their employees has single handedly wrecked my ability to do business at the time being, and jeopardized my personal finances beyond what I thought was possible. At first I thought perhaps someone had stolen a check from me and made copies, but this is worse because everything I have in terms of financial and personal information has been compromised by a thief who stole a very large sum of money from me in the past two weeks, and I'm afraid I'll be watching my back for years to come, and the burden this has created on myself and my business is unbelievable. I dont like how lawsuit happy America is, but unless this company wants to make ammends for the damages, I dont think I have any other choice but to hold them accountable in a court of law for the actions of one of their employees that has crippled my finances and given me the biggest [censored] headache and stressful situation I've dealt with in a long time. I literally didn't sleep last night thinking about having my financial livelihood destroyed by this piece of [censored].


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've told the representative from this company that they need to settle this situation now. My checking account is for all intents and purposes broke. If I dont hear something fair and reasonable from this company by tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to turn this over to our attorneys and let them argue this for me, I've got too many phone calls to make and too many precautions to put in place to argue with a multimillion dollar company about the gross and illegal neglegence of one of their employees who hasn't just stolen checks from me, but for all intents and purposes I have to assume that any information I had in my office has been compromised, and that means my entire financial identity not only as an individual, but also as a business owner.



Any suggestions greatly appreciated.



-Tex

[bobman0330]

Dude, why are you going after the company? If they did all teh background checks they say they did, it's not their fault. Besides, if you want to get your money back ASAP, go to the bank. They're actually obliged to recredit your account. The maintenance company is probably just trying to keep up their reputation, and if you start making absurd threats about suing them, they'll probably stop being friendly.

[tuq]

Tx,

This isn't going to be a help, cuz I can't help you on this, but where/who was he writing checks to that they would be accepted? I guess some or a lot of places don't ask for photo ID to verify identity, but I am just clueless on the types of places where he could pass a forged check. Doesn't help you out to answer but I'm curious.

[private joker]

The TxRedMan I used to know would find this guy and make a fist sandwich out of his face, with extra bloody ketchup. Can we still make this happen?