Washington Mutual is more than willing to assist you with opening an account. Even if the name and social security numbers aren't yours.
On Aug 17 I received a phone call from a representative of MBNA (my credit card company) to know if I wanted to approve a $25,000 cash advance to my Washington Mutual account. They were more than happy to provide the account number that I was transferring the money to. The funny thing is I didn't have an account with that bank.
Two days prior to this call an individual walked into the Happauge Long Island branch of Washington Mutual and was permitted to set up an account with "his" NON PHOTO New Jersey drivers license (that's a really great idea NJ) and a credit card with "his" name on it. This individual and I had a lot in common, not only in name and home address, we even had the same social security number. Washington Mutual set up the 4 different types of accounts without question.
I guess my first question if I were working for the bank would be: What would someone with a New York address, especially a New York address that was 150 mi from the bank where the account was being opened, be doing with an older and now obsolete non photo New Jersey license. The less than competent employee from Washington Mutual never even questioned this. The second form of ID was a credit card. Not a valid one, just one with my name on it. Neither form of ID was ever checked.
After I discovered what was going on Washington Mutual proceded to treat me like I was the criminal.in order to file an identity fraud complaint with the bank I had to have a police report. Here comes the catch 22.
I went my local NYS police barracks to inform them of what had happened. I was told that it was out of their jurisdiction. That's where the confusion sets in... I thought they were the NEW YORK STATE police and Long Island is part of New York State. Somewhere along the line I guess Long Island detached it's self from New York and became their own state. I was informed that I had to go back to the place where the fraud occurred and file a report with the LOCAL Long Island police. (Washington Mutual would not give me any information to give to the police without a police report and I couldn't get any information from Washington Mutual without a police report.)
After 2 1/2 hours of driving to Long Island to beg an officer for at least an incident report, a trip to the local social security office to get an affidavit of social security number (a 3 hour wait for this wonderful service), a visit to the notary. I was then treated like a criminal by the staff of Washington Mutual and I was given the attitude that I was more of an inconvenience than a victim.
I guess even after 9/11 and the "INCREASED" (that's a laugh) need to have proper identification, Washington Mutual doesn't feel the need to check much of anything. They are more than willing to open an account for anyone at any time. Doesn't matter if what you use for identification.
Next time anyone wants to launder some money or sock away money for some terrorist oranization... You have a friend in Washington Mutual.
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