Rainy Days and Forged Checks

Wife woke me up at 0400 to help bring in the dogs and the rain continued for a couple hours canceling my morning bike ride. Got online and decided to check my online bank account to see if my monthly government stipend had arrived.

It was in progress, but I noticed 3 checks written on the account that were not written by me.  This is a joint account shared with my son.

I had to agonize all day as it was Sunday in the US and finally called at 2100 to see what was going on.  I explained it all to the lady after answering the routine security questions and she informed me that the other person on the account, my son, had written the checks.

I tried to call my son, but it was about 0600 in Vegas – so no answer.  I shot off a quick email basically accusing him of ripping me off.

Got up this morning to find a flurry of emails from my son.  First couple were angry emails adamantly denying that he stole anything.  He took it upon himself to contact the bank and got way more information than I did.

I called my son to apologize for the accusation and to explain that I had limited info to go on.  He accepted and explained all that transpired.

Come to find out that the checks had my/our account info correct but only had one name – my son’s – but gave my son a middle initial.  The address on the forged checks was somewhere in Texas and one check was cashed in Kentucky, another in Ohio, and the third I cannot make out where.

My son had copies of the checks emailed to him, had the signature checked against the one on record at the bank, and got everything resolved.

So now, my account is closed, monies have been put back to make up for the bad checks, a new account has been created, and I am awaiting new checks to come in the mail.

My concerns now are direct deposit to the account that is now closed and automatic bill payments from the same account.  Not sure if they will redirect from old account to new or if I will have to go through the hassle of re-establishing all my accounts all over again.

What would really make this all worth while is if the police nab these assholes.  I have absolutely no idea how they got the bank routing number, name, or the account number.

Son – once again – very sorry for what I was thinking – and thanks for getting it all straightened out.

Tags: bank bank account checking checking account forged checks forgery rain stolen