IDENTITY THEFT IS NO JOKE!

IDENTITY THEFT IS NO JOKE!

We all think of identity theft as something that happens to someone else.

Well, let me bring it home to you. This is what happened to Calico in November, 2007.

I was in my California office when Jenny walked in with our Calico, NC - Bank of America statement. She asked me if I knew what particular amounts and checks were for that were listed on the statement that were not in our normal number series. There was a long list of them. Thanks to current technology, I logged into our Calico, NC Bank of America account web site and printed the checks.

These checks were colorful, perfectly printed, but they were not our checks. They had our account numbers, but some other company names/addresses on the top, and were made out to persons I had never heard of. They were signed, and some even had a finger print of the person who cashed it on the check, plus their driver’s license number and other related information that is required when you cash a check. I was stunned! They were all in the amounts of the $400 range and written on various days so as not to attract any attention. They were also cashed in various cities, which we later found out had to be handled by each separate police department rather than one combined crime.

I immediately drove to the bank and presented the bank office with the situation at hand. I was informed that the only way to stop other checks getting processed and the bank to refund the amount to our company was to close the account and start a new one.

This meant that all the checks in process would be returned to our payee plus all our automatic monthly bill payments would have to be rescheduled from the new account. This also included updating our (phone) payroll deduction plan with the government, which required new passwords, etc. You can’t imagine the time and effort we had to go through to do all of this.

The new account was opened while the old account was closed, which should have been the end of this fiasco. Unfortunately, as of the date that I am writing this article, we are still struggling with the situations that involved insurance, tax, monthly auto-payments, etc. that were scheduled for e-payments. We have made numerous calls to vendors to explain the reason for checks or payments that were returned to them shown as “Account Closed” from the old account which had to be replaced. Calico has had to reimburse many companies for the bank fees they incurred because they had deposited checks from our old account.

Fortunately, Bank of America deposited the actual check amounts back in our new account that had totaled close to $6,000.00. We are still battling with the bank over one major purchase from Wal-Mart for a check for $900.00 (listed as electronic), that I assume was HD Flat Screen TV.

The Bank recouped its losses from the banks that had cashed the checks or from the insurance they had. Of course those people have to do their own collection.

I was not satisfied to see some hoodlum getting away with it. We sent the counterfeit checks to Art Bruns, our General Manager at Calico, NC. He contacted the police who had no interest in spending their time to chase this minor crime as they called it.

Art called one of the city’s police departments where one of the checks was cashed. He found a detective who was what you wanted to have as an example for all other policeman to be like. He said that he was working on a case that might involve the same people, and to have the checks faxed to him. A few days later he called Art and told him that the person who did all of this was in jail, and he operated all this fraud from his cell phone while there. What type of jails do we have that they have cell phones and can set up an office to continue their operation without interruption? Just think, if this man can do all of this from his cell phone in jail, he must be very smart. Why doesn’t he apply himself correctly and be successful in the real world?

On Wednesday January 16, 2008 I received a call from Art and was asked to check my e-mail for a link that the detective had sent him with the picture of the villain and his information. Attached is copy of the character that caused us so much trouble. According to the information on the web-site, he was already released again in December. I hope with all the information we have given to the police, they be able to put him away again, but this time for a long time, and without his cell phone.

My thanks to Jenny, Art, the Detective, and Bank of America.