Bank Of America Breach in Security Causes Second Round of ID Theft Wilmington Delaware
Many moons ago I was an employee of Fleet Bank. Memorial Day weekend 2001, laptop computers were stolen and my personal information was compromised including a bank credit card that I frequently used for business travel. The card was canceled, the bank provided a letter stating the account was closed and all charges were fraud and a new account was issued.
When Bank of America bought Fleet, they never attempted to collect the bad debt, but they did "drop" the fraud code and add the derogatory trade line to my credit history. Bank of America sent a letetr stating they instructed the CRA's to delete, but the CRA's refused.
I get a call a few days ago from the bank advising someone had tried to use this old closed account to charge a $2.95 fee out of Cypress (a known hotbed for illegal banking activity and laundering for terrorism) then a second charge for $12.95 from the same "company" on the old account.
Now here's where the complaint comes in. This was an error when the fraud code dropped off showing why the defaulted account was charged off. When we addressed the issue in 2006, the made an effort to repair my credit but not the account itself. THEY PROVIDED THESE CRIMINALS MY NEW AND VALID ACCOUNT NUMBERS asking that future charges be made to them.
Thankfully, the bank found the error and did not allow the $499.95 charge to go through, cancel the card and initiate a new number.
So I run fraud alerts on all the credit reports, make the police report, and see that someone who claims to be affiliated with Bank of America solicited my credit report for a credit determination in March 2008 and an account was opened in June 2008, defaulting in August 2008.
Part of the fault for the fraudulent opening is an credit reporting agency issue because they refused to put fraud alerts on the account for 7 years as I requested having already been victimized, but here we are this third party, Client Services, mysteriously involved with Bank of America.
Client Services has no phone number so I call Bank of America and they have no idea who these people are, how they got my information and they have no record of any new lines of credit being established.
It is suspect that all of this second round of fraud is surrounding Bank of America and their lack of security.
Jen
Eatontown, New Jersey
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Jen
Eatontown,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
UPDATES April 2009
#3Author of original report
Mon, April 13, 2009
Bank of America is doing an awesome job on my active accounts. Where they have dropped the ball in in their recordkeeping and lack of cooperation on old accounts.
The original fraudulent account held by Summit Bank (2 banks ago) evidently lost the fraud code as a result of their computer transition. The account was closed as fraud in 2001. The code dropped off in January 2006. It was that month the bank misapplied a payment meant for the new account to the old account.
The bank apologized and fixed the mistake of the misapplied payment but said they couldn't find record of any fraududlent activity. I provided police reports, internal bank security personnel that worked with police, and other details that they should have record of since they aquired the original bank. Since no records were found on the issue, they sent a letter stating they were having the account deleted from my credit reports because of unverifiable information.
When the credit reporting agencies checked with the bank as to the validity of the letter, they claim to have information that supercedes my document.
So here we are 9 uears after the original theft, and this is well beyond the reporting period. They have no information as to what the charges $4,179 was for and no explanation as to what specific charges were not transferred to the new account at the time in 2001. They refuse to explain why they backtracked on their letter stating they would correct the credit history.
So they re-aged the account to illegally extend the reporting period on the 2001 fraud charge off claiming last activity (which was a result of their misapplied payment) in 2006.
I was told they will not provide any explanations in writing and they will not make corrections. They admit to their billing error but feel they have the right to continue to penalize me for this fraud account until 2013. They refused mailing addresses, refuse to respond to correspondence, and refuse to discuss the old account unless I sue them.
So - my attorney is reviewing. We have evidence of the account not even being listed on the CRA until 2006. We have evidence of their billing error in 2006 and recorded calls asking me to sue them for damages.
The attorney is shooting a letter of Intent To Sue the bank this week.
Carol Ann
Las Vegas,Nevada,
U.S.A.
Suggestion and Help
#3Consumer Suggestion
Tue, August 19, 2008
Bank of America, has Not just done this to you, myself and Many thousands of Americans have fallen Victim to them Because of Identity Theft. To Protect yourself from further Identity Theft Contact National ID Theft Recovery Service and ID Watchdog.
Here are My suggestions to you:
First File a Police report and make a report for Identity Theft. Send Via Certified Mail a copy of the Report along with a handwriting sample and Enlarged Color picture of Yourself to Federal Trade Commission in Washington, DC. Contact also your Local Attorney General's Office for your State and do the Same thing. Since the Thieves are using Computers Contact The Federal Bureau of Investigations Internet Crime Detail and the Postal System, File a report with The United States Post Office for Identity theft.
Next, Download form 3949A with Internal Revenue Service, fill it out, make a copy for yourself and send it back via Certified Mail. They will go through their records with a fine toothed comb. Often Cerditor's resell outstanding debts to other collectors and Ignore the details, because they want their share of what they recover.