Karen Lodrick’s Story - Part I: The Theft
Returning from a family reunion on a Saturday in November of 2006, I had a few strange messages from my bank it seemed. Before I even had a chance to call them the phone rang again, the automated message said to press one if the withdrawals from my account were correct and press two if they were not. I pressed two and was put on hold. Then the man on the other end said there were large withdrawals from my account and he wanted me to verify them. As he read them off, I was in shock. What was happening? He said they came from a debit/credit card with the last digits XXXX. That is not my card I exclaimed, please close that card. He gave me a number to call to put in a claim. I called the number but the offices were closed. It would have to wait until Monday.
Monday morning I called the claims department and told them about the debit/credit cards. They asked me many questions and put in a claim never informing me I would have to close my bank account. So, I still didn’t understand the urgency until I talked with my parents and they said to go down and close my bank accounts. I couldn’t believe no one in the claims department instructed me to do that. Immediately after talking with my parents, I went down to a local branch on Sutter at Powell in San Francisco. I was shown a computer screen of my account activity; all of my checking and part of my savings within days had been withdrawn by two fraudulent debit/credit cards. I couldn’t believe it. There were two cards opened that I knew nothing about. I needed to get my money back, so I could pay my pending bills. My new bank account was at zero balance.
From the start I was treated like the criminal even after a decade with the bank. At first I had to deal with two separate fraud claims offices. It was horrible. I was put on hold and transferred over and over again telling my stories repeatedly. I really felt like nothing was going to get resolved because it seemed no one was communicating with each other. I would have to start over every time. After a few days of this and with my pleading to get one person to handle my claim they put me into dual claims and Diane handled my account. There was a temporary sense of relief. I finally felt things moving forward.
Of course, figuring out the exact amount of money lost was a daunting task. At first I couldn’t see them because my statement was stolen. The only time I saw the list was at the bank. So, I went back down to the bank and asked for a statement. They couldn’t print one out because it was between statement periods. I’d have to wait 5 business days. In the end there were nearly 60 transactions leaving my account at -$1200.00. Total amount lost was nearly $22,600.00. It took days out of each week to get the issues solved. Since I’m self-employed I was at risk of losing clients. To this day I’ve spent 500 hours which is an additional $30,000.00 loss which doesn’t even include my pain and suffering. Within the 10 days I received my money back, but bills were late and I ensued late fees which I had to dispute regularly for a few months.
The thieves were stealing my mail. It turns out the federal mail keys for the neighborhood was stolen off the mailman. The whole neighborhood was getting looted. The postman told me he would see piles of mail lying around the sidewalks and he would find mail boxes wide open.
I called and called post offices to no avail. One postman told me those keys were very old that they had, in fact, been stolen many times over and it would cost millions to replace them just for San Francisco alone. So the federal postal service opted out. So basically, our mail isn’t safe in our cities or in our country. Reminds me of that movie with Ken Costner, The Postman, “some 16 years from the present day, America has been turned into a wasteland…” It makes me feel if I can’t trust my mail then I can’t trust my government. And if I can’t trust my government then I no longer have a country. I’m scared. So I use a PO Box.
Wells Fargo randomly sent those two debit/credit cards through the mail along with pin numbers, and then allowed the thief to open them from an unauthorized phone. The thief also got a Wells Fargo account receipt sent through the mail that had my all account numbers along with my Social Security number and driver’s license number on the same document. Once she had my social security number she opened up numerous accounts under my name. She re-opened old credit cards I thought were closed. She got into my open credit accounts and charged thousand of dollars. It was like playing a cat and mouse chase. As she opened accounts I would have them closed. Dell Computer Company called to verify a $7,000.00 loan. She was able to fill out the application perfectly. She had all my information including my driver’s license.
At times, I felt like they were protecting these thieves. I found several companies more interested in having purchases than they were about a secure account. Paypal was reluctant to close a fraudulent account in my name because I couldn’t verify a password, but I could verify my SS number and other vital information. The thieves opened an email account using my name. When I reported it to Google no one ever contacted me regarding the issue.
The most frustrating was my dealings with Wells Fargo. They asked if I would view ATM photos. I said of course, anything to help. They sent them via email to the local branch at Sutter and Powell in San Francisco. They opened up the pictures on the computer for me to view. All of the pictures were a bit fuzzy but she wore a distinctively fluffy coat. They gave me a print out of one of the photos. I had to sign an affidavit stating I didn’t recognize her. It felt good to have a face to the crime. I asked the bank to email the photos. I wanted to print them and post them around the neighborhood. They said they would but they never did. Once again I felt like they were protecting the thief. The claims department told me that the bank shouldn’t have even given me a copy of the photo. They said it was for my protection. I didn’t feel protected. Ultimately it would be that photo print out that would help me identify her 4 months later.
As the months went by I continued to watch my account. I continued the cat and mouse chase. I would periodically call the Wells Fargo claims department to update them. I wanted to help in anyway to catch her. Then, one Saturday I went to get some cash out of the ATM and noticed no money in my account. As soon as I got home I called the bank. The bank had retracted the money from my account. I couldn’t believe it! As soon as I could reach someone in claims they accused me of not viewing the photos, hence my admission of guilt. I explained that I had and I signed something. They said they had no record of it and I would have to go down to the bank and view the photos. I was treated so rudely, like I was a crook.
I was on the phone for hours demanding my money back. The next day I went down to the same local branch and viewed the photos for the second time. I made sure to sign the affidavit. Since I voiced my concern the clerk even called the fraud department and got them to help her through the process. Then, roughly two months later I received a letter from Wells Fargo in the mail stating because I didn’t view the photos my money in question was going to be retracted from my account. I couldn’t believe it. Wells Fargo was taking my money away for the third time. I immediately called the claims department and after 2 hours on the phone my resolve would be going down and viewing the photos for the third time. At this point I was sure the bank is in cahoots with the thief. And to make matters worse this was around the same time the thief started getting into my new bank account withdrawing $600.00 with no questions asked. And I knew I hadn’t been to the bank that day. Months earlier, I had placed an identity alert on my account but it didn’t seem to be working. I ask if there was an alert. There wasn’t. So for the second time I had an alert placed on my account. Being paranoid for good reason, I asked many questions to ensure an alert was in fact on my account. It seemed to be. After viewing the photos for the third time, I insisted on waiting for the fax to go through and I wanted copies of everything. So I waited and waited but I needed to wait.
Days later I received a call from the claims department regarding this new fraud claim on my new account. They said I would have to close this compromised account and open a new before I couldn’t get the money back. This would be my third account in 6 months. Then a day after, I received a call from the Wells Fargo Market/Church St Branch (in the Safeway grocery store) asking if I was going to come back and get my driver’s license. But I had my driver’s license! I wasn’t in that bank today. I told him to please hold onto that license I would come get it. And I asked him to have her arrested if she came back. He said he started to question her when he saw the alert on my account. He thought she got nervous and said she would come back. She was trying to open up a new account in my name and have my money transferred.
It was the end of the banking day, so I said I would pick up the license first thing in the morning. And so the next day the remarkable capture begins 6 months after the theft began.