Coworker's husband in need of financial help... (credit card, loan, payments)

[Rita Mordio]

Alright, long story short - back in February, my coworker's shed burned down. They got the insurance money and her husband put it in their checking account so that he could purchase needed supplies to slowly rebuild the shed. Another essential piece is that every month, he got a call from Capital One (truck loan) with an offer of "Pay now, get $50 off your next bill" and always did that.

That's the background. He never checked his account online because he kept his own ledger.

Until last night.

He got a letter from Capital One saying that the loan for his truck was way overdue. He called and talked to somebody.. then he checked his account - the calls he'd been receiving for the past 4 months or so was a scam.

Well, in further checking his account, it showed that in one transaction: $24,000 of the garage money had been transferred to another account back in July. It also showed that on MANY occassions, checks for up to $500 were made to Food Lion.

Today, he went to the bank and tried to figure out what to do to get an investigation going into who got into his account.

The person he spoke with checked the numbers on the account that the $24K went to - dead account. She then told him that he's SOL on the money and should keep a better eye on his account.

Everyone's ragged on him about not having checked his account online... but what can he do now that the damage is done, and a total of over $50K has been stolen?

[dynimagelv]

Chalk it up to experience.

[Karla with a K]

Originally Posted by Kuharai

Today, he went to the bank and tried to figure out what to do to get an investigation going into who got into his account.

The person he spoke with checked the numbers on the account that the $24K went to - dead account. She then told him that he's SOL on the money and should keep a better eye on his account.

unless there is more to the story than he told you, if money was transferred form his account without his approval I can't see how the bank would tell him to bad. I would go further up the chain of command at the bank

[Rita Mordio]

Originally Posted by Karla with a K

unless there is more to the story than he told you, if money was transferred form his account without his approval I can't see how the bank would tell him to bad. I would go further up the chain of command at the bank

They told him that they have a 5 month limit on fraudulent transactions. Hence, the SOL part.

[Wild Style]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

Chalk it up to experience.

^^ cold as ice

[Karla with a K]

For that kind of money I would still try to see if state laws override the banks "rules"
If he has been a long standing good customer they might be able to help anyway but finding the right person is what he will need to do.
Maybe its me I would try everything till I exhausted all resources.

But then again I love going car shopping and calling the credit card companies to have interest lowered.

Ok I just did some minor searches, if he was not receiving statements there may be a chance because from what I can see it says you have to report the fraud with in a certain time frame of finding out about the loss.
i would have him ask the bank for their documents that state the 5 month time limit.

[Threestep]

Not keeping up with your finances .. let's not get into that.

Even though the 24k went into a dead account there is a trail at the bank. They can retrieve the complete transaction history. Was there an insider, has id been documented propperly, over 5k additional information is required should the funds have been cashed out, if not - trace it. Every bank has an officer assigned to fraudulent activity.

If it is a community bank - camp out at the president's office, regional/superregional - work your way up to the regional president.

Does phone solicitation not fall under mail fraud? Have the payments to "CapitalOne" traced via the back of the check.

Keep notes!

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by Kuharai

Alright, long story short - back in February, my coworker's shed burned down. They got the insurance money and her husband put it in their checking account so that he could purchase needed supplies to slowly rebuild the shed. Another essential piece is that every month, he got a call from Capital One (truck loan) with an offer of "Pay now, get $50 off your next bill" and always did that.

That's the background. He never checked his account online because he kept his own ledger.

Until last night.

He got a letter from Capital One saying that the loan for his truck was way overdue. He called and talked to somebody.. then he checked his account - the calls he'd been receiving for the past 4 months or so was a scam.

Well, in further checking his account, it showed that in one transaction: $24,000 of the garage money had been transferred to another account back in July. It also showed that on MANY occassions, checks for up to $500 were made to Food Lion.

Today, he went to the bank and tried to figure out what to do to get an investigation going into who got into his account.

The person he spoke with checked the numbers on the account that the $24K went to - dead account. She then told him that he's SOL on the money and should keep a better eye on his account.

Everyone's ragged on him about not having checked his account online... but what can he do now that the damage is done, and a total of over $50K has been stolen?

The first assumption is that the money is most likely gone, transferred outside of the USA. But... I would begin immediately filing complaints with the FBI bank fraud division, along with filing criminal charges locally with your police station, just to get it on record. The FBI requires $100,000 be stolen, but you can join that with others who have been in the same situation, and there is probably several people out there to join a claim with.

In addition, this sounds like someone had inside knowledge, (i.e. loan information etc) so I would also call the loan company, explain the situation, send them copies of the police records, so they can also begin to research who had access to records etc, and as a previous poster stated, work my way up the command at the bank. I would not accept, sorry money gone as an answer.

[Philip T]

I would be inclined to start a civil suit.

The money went somewhere and the bank is capable of finding out where. Those details will be provided in full during the "discovery" phase of the lawsuit. If they continue the "dunno where it went" routine, the judge can slap them with contempt. Bank officers' butts do not like jail cells.

While you did not state where you are at -- civil causes of actions vary by state -- there are many causes of action (the basis for the suit that you must present to the court) that could exist. Negligence, Theft, Fraud, on and on. You could also consider a Federal level court suit, but my bias is to start in State District court, which sounds like the dollar range you are in.

As the bank would be a named defendant -- and others can be added as the information is provided, as well as the bank maybe cross-claiming others -- the bank's insurance company will likely get involved. Insurance companies tend to look towards settlements rather than defending -- because their own lawyers cost them, win or lose -- and you may get a settlement from the insurance.

[Rita Mordio]

Thank you all for the advice, I'll see her tomorrow and hopefully give her a plan of action based on your responses.