I was contacted by a person who said her name was Karen Morehead and that she was from my bank's (BankOne) fraud department. She told me that she was calling in reference to a prior anauthorized transaction that had occured on my checking account last year. She said that the perpetrators had been apprehended and that the bank needed to verify my information for the case. She then proceeded to read off my bank account information, address, phone number and I agreed that the information was correct.
She said that BankOne would be sending me some information on identity theft and that they would be in touch. The following week I went into my bank to make a deposit and discovered that there was $399.00 missing from my checking account. As I did not have this much in my account it was now in arrears and overdraft fees had been added. The bank representative sat down with me and we contacted the bank's check fraud forgery unit, they took a report but told me that they could not return my money because I had fallen for their trick and verified the account information. I was told that I would have to try to get the money from the company.
I made several calls to the number (memo line on the check) 1-800-587-1822. My bank also called them several times. My calls were never returned. I then decided to look up paybycheck (the company that processed the transaction), found their website www.paybycheck.com and submitted a abuse/fraud complaint with them against J.D.L. Services Inc. They told me that they would email the company and ask them to contact me. The next day I received a call from a Judy Spencer from J.D.L. Services.
She told me that the person that had contacted me pretending to be from my bank had been terminated and that J.D.L. Services would send me a check for the $399.00 as a refund as I (did not authorize the transaction. I gave Ms. Spencer the number to BankOne Fraud department and she called them as well and told them that the transaction was unauthorized and that they would refund me the money. Over two weeks have gone by and there has been no check and they have not returned any of the messages I have left at the customer service number.
In the meantime I have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, as well as the Michigan Attorney General's Office. I have remained in communication with BankOnes Fraud Department and called the corporate offices (JPMorgan) in New York in an effort for someone to help me. I did not authorize $399.00 to be taken from my account. My checking account is now in collections and since this incident I have been unable to pay to have my diabetes medication filled because my account is now overdrawn. I am continuing to try to work with my bank to restore my account but so far I've been unsuccessful. I have also called information in Philadelphia to get another number for the company (215-568-1131 and 215-568-1208 which I think must be a FAX number). If any one has any other suggestions I'm all ears! This has been a terrible experience being victimized like this and I will continue to try to fight them.
Sylvia
Inkster, Michigan
U.S.A.
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