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cwh
cwh PowerDork
12/12/12 8:22 a.m.

Well, they tried, but does not look like they were successful. We have been waiting for a large wire transfer, so Jane checks the accounts constantly. This morning she saw that a check had been run for 2800.00. It was bogus. We have copies of the check, and it looks perfect. Made out to somebody we have no knowledge of, in South Carolina. Our account has been charged, but we stopped payment immediately, so we should not have any loss. Already had Ft.Lauderdale Police here to file the report. Officer stated that a lot of this has been going on. We do not yet have any idea how anybody could have gotten the info, as we do not use checks for anything. But, somebody did. We are anxious to figure out a way to protect our funds, looks like an additional account to keep only money that will be going out or in, and keeping working money in an invisible account. Anybody else get stung like this? Any other suggestions? Interesting that the amount of the check was almost exactly what our net is from the incoming wire.

JohnRW1621
JohnRW1621 PowerDork
12/12/12 8:26 a.m.

Have you recently had any dealings with a Nigerian prince?

cwh
cwh PowerDork
12/12/12 8:31 a.m.

No. Our business is almost all international, but no Africa.

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon MegaDork
12/12/12 8:48 a.m.

So that's why that $2800 didn't make it into my account.

mad_machine
mad_machine GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
12/12/12 9:29 a.m.

damn... it honestly does not take much to forge a cheque. Routing numbers are public knowledge, so all somebody needs is the name on the account and the account number.

Just glad you caught itbefore some real damage could have been done

moparman76_69
moparman76_69 HalfDork
12/12/12 9:36 a.m.

Funny I had some bogus credit charges on my bank card from south Carolina earlier this year. Wife had the same thing happen to hers but the charges were from CA.

andrave
andrave HalfDork
12/12/12 9:37 a.m.

a friend of ours runs a restaurant and had the same thing happen. Turned out a girl they had waitressing a year or so ago had helped herself to a blank check from the boss's desk when she wasn't looking and waited a while to write it. The officer who she called told her he sees this type of thing all the time... but as stated, I can print off a check for any account online, there are check generators some people use that dont' want to buy checks for their accounts. do you have any employees? I'd suspect someone inside.

N Sperlo
N Sperlo UltimaDork
12/12/12 9:39 a.m.

I try not to write checks outside of paying bills. Glad you caught it.

racerdave600
racerdave600 Dork
12/12/12 9:53 a.m.

I had that happen a few years back for $500 written for cash at a Walmart store. They cashed it, probably for an employee. My bank credited it back to me and said they get a few dozen a week from Walmart for cash that are bogus. Interesting.

cwh
cwh PowerDork
12/12/12 9:58 a.m.

Our little office is not really secure for "inside" attacks. That will change. I don't even know where that checkbook is! All changes now. I have had my credit card hacked twice, but was taken care of very quickly. I think the bad guys are counting on people being lazy with checking on things.

Hal
Hal Dork
12/12/12 3:33 p.m.
cwh wrote: We have been waiting for a large wire transfer, Interesting that the amount of the check was almost exactly what our net is from the incoming wire.

Could have been someone from the other end of your transfer. You had to give them the account info so they could make the transfer. And since they knew the amount of the transfer they could be certain that amount of money was in the account.

yamaha
yamaha Dork
12/12/12 3:50 p.m.

In reply to Hal:

This unfortunately is probably more likely. They'd be my prime suspects as they would have all that information right there.

mad_machine
mad_machine GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
12/12/12 3:54 p.m.

thankfully I write one cheque a month.. to my landlord. The rest is done online or with cash

cwh
cwh PowerDork
12/12/12 4:09 p.m.

We have several clients that pay by wire transfer, and the transfer info does carry our primary account number. Hmmmm.

Streetwiseguy
Streetwiseguy UltraDork
12/12/12 4:23 p.m.

Written more than a century ago, but I find it be good advice:

Stephen Leacock

My Financial Career

When I go into a bank I get rattled. The clerks rattle me; the wickets rattle me; the sight of the money rattles me; everything rattles me.

The moment I cross the threshold of a bank and attempt to transact business there, I become an irresponsible idiot.

I knew this beforehand, but my salary had been raised to fifty dollars a month and I felt that the bank was the only place for it.

So I shambled in and looked timidly round at the clerks. I had an idea that a person about to open an account must needs consult the manager.

I went up to a wicket marked "Accountant." The accountant was a tall, cool devil. The very sight of him rattled me. My voice was sepulchral.

"Can I see the manager?" I said, and added solemnly, "alone." I don't know why I said "alone."

"Certainly," said the accountant, and fetched him.

The manager was a grave, calm man. I held my fifty-six dollars clutched in a crumpled ball in my pocket.

"Are you the manager?" I said. God knows I didn't doubt it.

"Yes," he said.

"Can I see you," I asked, "alone?" I didn't want to say "alone" again, but without it the thing seemed self-evident.

The manager looked at me in some alarm. He felt that I had an awful secret to reveal.

"Come in here," he said, and led the way to a private room. He turned the key in the lock.

"We are safe from interruption here," he said; "sit down."

We both sat down and looked at each other. I found no voice to speak.

"You are one of Pinkerton's men, I presume," he said.

He had gathered from my mysterious manner that I was a detective. I knew what he was thinking, and it made me worse.

"No, not from Pinkerton's," I said, seeming to imply that I came from a rival agency.

"To tell the truth," I went on, as if I had been prompted to lie about it, "I am not a detective at all. I have come to open an account. I intend to keep all my money in this bank."

The manager looked relieved but still serious; he concluded now that I was a son of Baron Rothschild or a young Gould.

"A large account, I suppose," he said.

"Fairly large," I whispered. "I propose to deposit fifty-six dollars now and fifty dollars a month regularly."

The manager got up and opened the door. He called to the accountant.

"Mr. Montgomery," he said unkindly loud, "this gentleman is opening an account, he will deposit fifty-six dollars. Good morning."

I rose.

A big iron door stood open at the side of the room.

"Good morning," I said, and stepped into the safe.

"Come out," said the manager coldly, and showed me the other way.

I went up to the accountant's wicket and poked the ball of money at him with a quick convulsive movement as if I were doing a conjuring trick.

My face was ghastly pale.

"Here," I said, "deposit it." The tone of the words seemed to mean, "Let us do this painful thing while the fit is on us."

He took the money and gave it to another clerk.

He made me write the sum on a slip and sign my name in a book. I no longer knew what I was doing. The bank swam before my eyes.

"Is it deposited?" I asked in a hollow, vibrating voice.

"It is," said the accountant.

"Then I want to draw a cheque."

My idea was to draw out six dollars of it for present use. Someone gave me a chequebook through a wicket and someone else began telling me how to write it out. The people in the bank had the impression that I was an invalid millionaire. I wrote something on the cheque and thrust it in at the clerk. He looked at it.

"What! are you drawing it all out again?" he asked in surprise. Then I realized that I had written fifty-six instead of six. I was too far gone to reason now. I had a feeling that it was impossible to explain the thing. All the clerks had stopped writing to look at me.

Reckless with misery, I made a plunge.

"Yes, the whole thing."

"You withdraw your money from the bank?"

"Every cent of it."

"Are you not going to deposit any more?" said the clerk, astonished.

"Never."

An idiot hope struck me that they might think something had insulted me while I was writing the cheque and that I had changed my mind. I made a wretched attempt to look like a man with a fearfully quick temper.

The clerk prepared to pay the money.

"How will you have it?" he said.

"What?"

"How will you have it?"

"Oh"--I caught his meaning and answered without even trying to think--"in fifties."

He gave me a fifty-dollar bill.

"And the six?" he asked dryly.

"In sixes," I said.

He gave it me and I rushed out.

As the big door swung behind me I caught the echo of a roar of laughter that went up to the ceiling of the bank. Since then I bank no more. I keep my money in cash in my trousers pocket and my savings in silver dollars in a sock.

friedgreencorrado
friedgreencorrado PowerDork
12/12/12 4:25 p.m.
cwh wrote: We have several clients that pay by wire transfer, and the transfer info does carry our primary account number. Hmmmm.

Sounds like a place to start looking. Here's hoping it's an "inside job" at a client, instead of at your own place. Man, that would be unpleasant.

cwh
cwh PowerDork
12/12/12 4:41 p.m.

No matter what,it is unpleasant. Looking around, trying to figure out who the perp is, realizing it could be someone I trust, no fun.

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon MegaDork
12/12/12 5:20 p.m.

Yeah, that would suck mightily. Let me make a suggestion: open a savings account and immediately transfer all but a small amount from your checking to the savings. Now, as you need to write checks, transfer it out of savings. Yeah, it's a PITA but it walls off your 'big' money from wire crooks etc. and/or the people who have your account number from the wire transfers. I do that with PayPal stuff, good luck with them snatching anything out of my accounts. Basically the same thing you mentioned in your OP.

Bumboclot
Bumboclot Reader
12/12/12 5:39 p.m.

A pure berkeleyery ting dat.

DustoffDave
DustoffDave HalfDork
12/12/12 5:39 p.m.

Strange, we had three attempts on our debit card in South Carolina on Sunday. Luckily only one went through and the bank caught it and called us. I heard on the radio the other day that a department in the state government of SC got hacked recently and some Credit/debit card numbers and SSNs got stolen. I haven't been in SC since August, and I was only there 10 days... I'm considering either LifeLock or Zander Insurance...

z31maniac
z31maniac PowerDork
12/12/12 5:48 p.m.
cwh wrote: We have several clients that pay by wire transfer, and the transfer info does carry our primary account number. Hmmmm.

Create a new account that's outside of this account.

That way, people wire you the money, you then transfer into a different account and keep the "payment receiving" account at whatever bare minimum. Then if someone does get cute, there is nothing for them to get.

friedgreencorrado
friedgreencorrado PowerDork
12/12/12 6:05 p.m.
Curmudgeon wrote: Yeah, that would suck mightily. Let me make a suggestion: open a savings account and immediately transfer all but a small amount from your checking to the savings. Now, as you need to write checks, transfer it out of savings. Yeah, it's a PITA but it walls off your 'big' money from wire crooks etc. and/or the people who have your account number from the wire transfers. I do that with PayPal stuff, good luck with them snatching anything out of my accounts. Basically the same thing you mentioned in your OP.

I actually do something similar with my piddly lil' personal checking account. I opened a second one just to pay for stuff online. And I can tell whether the thief is from online or meat life (Catastrophe Waitress got mine at a restaurant once, about 2000 or so) depending on which card number was stolen.

Still kind of makes me angry to jump through those hoops, though. I think the first time I bought something online was about 1996 or so. Wasn't until 2010 that I ever had a card number stolen online. Don't know if I was just lucky, or if the thieves just got better at it.

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon MegaDork
12/12/12 6:49 p.m.

South Carolina state motto: 'Sometimes we take the heat off of Florida for a day or so.'

cwh
cwh PowerDork
12/14/12 7:40 a.m.

Well, they came back for a second try, this time for 1900.00. We had already drained all but .78 out of the account, moved to an "invisible" account. Wife is actually shaking with rage. We will call the police shortly, but since nothing has been stolen from us, don't expect much from them. Somebody did cash the check and got money from this, so there was loss to somebody. I am fortunate that Jane is SO diligent in the office.

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon MegaDork
12/14/12 7:52 a.m.

Glad you didn't get hit 'for real'. Things like this are why so many places are starting to refuse checks unless they are electronically debited on the spot.

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