I entered into a lease agreement in August. The lessor emailed me stating she was out of the country and that her sister would pick up the signed lease agreement and my personal check Friday afternoon. She requested a personal check made out in her name for first, last and security deposit. This check was a for a total of $3900.00.
When I went to move into the property the following Tuesday (2 1/2 banking days later) I realized something was very wrong. I tried to contact the owner at her residence in South Carolina. She didn't answer the other number provided was disconnected. The house was trashed. I immediately went to the local police and found out I had entered into a fraudulent lease with the evicted tenant posing as the owner. They were just about to serve her with an eviction notice.
The police told me to file a report in the County Sheriffs Department after I put a stop payment on the check. I went immediately to the local branch down the road to put a hold on the check.
The teller was quite empathetic and told me that I should be fine. She then looked at me in horror. The check had been cashed in full the same day I had given it to the sister. She pointed at her manager and told me to talk to her. The manager rudely approached me with a copy of the check that had been cashed. I told her that it was not the person I wrote it to and that the signature didn't even match. I asked her what she used for Id and was shocked to see that she provided only a South Carolina Drivers license. I asked her to tell me who had approved the check and she told me that it wasn't her problem. She rushed me to the door and told me to file a report with the fraud department.
On my way to the police department my good friend and my investment banker paged me. He had previously worked for me at a Major National Bank based out of Seattle. This was before I became disabled. He was appalled that someone had cashed that check without contacting me or even putting a hold on it. He was furious that he had even worse news. He tried to calmly tell me that the person I wrote the check to had over 20 felony convictions filled against her in the State of Florida primarily Palm Beach County. One of them was even filled by Wachovia bank. There were also legal reports showing fraudulent id with South Carolina Drivers License.
The reason I bring this up is because Florida was currently going through a rebuilding time frame due to the previous hurricane. Banks were requiring two forms of id if the person did not have an account and would also call the customer to come down and identify the person the check was written out to. This was to avoid customer scams by contractors and white collar crime.
I went to the police and filed a report. They were shocked that Wachovia had cashed the check for $3900 with an out of state id and an illegible fingerprint. They told me that the bank was protected anyway because they were federally insured and that by filling a report We would both get our money back.
They contacted the FBI and helped me put together the paperwork to send to the Wachovia fraud department. I mentioned at this time that I felt that someone internally with the bank must have signed off and possibly been involved. This is because I was a former bank manager. I would always put a hold on funds or contact the customer especially if they had only written 3 checks on the account and received Social Security payments!
The police fell behind with my report and I found out my paperwork had been misfiled. The fraud department sent me a letter within 30 days stating that they would not take any responsibility. I called them in Philadelphia and was treated so coldly. I actually began to cry. I have a terminal illness and I felt so sad to be discriminated against.
You might want to say "So what you got scammed" Well I did and I went to the local news to warn others to be careful of this scam.
However, something kept nagging at me about the banks treatment towards me and the runaround they gave me regarding information as to who had signed off on the check and that they performed in good faith.
The State Attorney recently contacted me and told me that this person had plead guilty to at least 15 counts and was going to jail for a number of years.
She primarily committed identity theft and Internet fraud. Her typical victims were major retail establishments.
I have all documentation supporting all of my claims in this letter.
I have also found out this person lived in the city were the check was cashed and was in the same age group as the manager.
I also asked five different men that had checks written on Wachovia. Even with a local id and checks under $300. They were required to provide 2 forms of id or open an account with a hold placed on the check. Two of them even had the branch manager contact the customer to physically come down to the branch and id the person and verify the check was not stolen. These were on checks that were less than $1000.
I challenge any of you to walk in with a customer check written for over $1000 and show an out of state id with no other identification. Will they give you cash immediately?
Lisa
Juno Beach, Florida
U.S.A.
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