Fraud never happens at a good time. And it certainly doesn’t hold off during celebrations! Two years ago, one victim found her life profoundly changed while at a wedding in Boston, Massachusetts. Shortly after the wedding, a teller at a Bank of America in Saratoga Springs, New York, handed over 5,000 to a fraudster using a fake license made with her personal identifying information. Forget the fake IDs adolescents used to get into bars. Nowadays fraudsters are using sophisticated software and capable printers to create virtually impossible-to-detect fake IDs. Ruining victims lives as they go.
This victim isn’t sure how her identity was stolen. But she does know that during the preparations and festivities, she let her guard down. And can recall one moment at the wedding when she left her purse on a chair to join her family for photos. “A vague voice in my head warned me this was a bad idea. Another voice, the one that prevailed, was reassuring: “It’s your daughter’s wedding!” that voice said. “Nothing bad can happen today!” Oh, but it can.
Two and a half months after the theft, the stolen $5,000 was back in this victim’s account. But for the last two years, she has had to fight to reclaim her identity. Fraud experts call this the “cleanup”. She came to think of it as a circle of hell. Meeting investigators, sitting through court hearings, filing reports with police departments, shutting down bank accounts, freezing credit reports. The Combat Identity Theft To-Do list goes on. Possibly for the rest of her life.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “An identity thief stole $5,000 from me. I spent two years tracking down how” published by The Boston Globe on May 15, 2024.
When a stranger got $5,000 of my money from a bank teller, it sent me on a two-year odyssey to figure out who was impersonating me and how. It was June of 2022, a few days after my daughter’s wedding, and I was still feeling giddy from the celebration. But it was time to finish paying for it, so I logged into my bank account to check my balance before settling up with the florist, caterer, and other vendors.
A quick glance at recent transactions jolted me out of my sunny mood. Sandwiched between the payment I’d transferred to my dog walker and the 29 cents I’d earned in interest was a very bad and incomprehensible number. Three days after the wedding, $5,000 in cash had been withdrawn from my checking account — but not by me.
