#IdentityTheft #BankFraud #FraudulentCheck #ATMWithdrawal
😱 Dealing with unauthorized charges on your bank account can be extremely stressful and overwhelming. If you’ve noticed fraudulent activity on your account, it’s important to take immediate action to protect your finances and personal information.
Here are some steps you can take to address the situation and prevent future occurrences of fraudulent activity:
**1. Contact Your Bank**
– As soon as you notice unauthorized charges or withdrawals, contact your bank or financial institution to report the fraudulent activity. This will help prevent further damage to your account and initiate the process of recovering any lost funds.
**2. File a Claim**
– Work with your bank to file a claim for the fraudulent transactions. Provide any relevant details or evidence that you have to support your claim, such as the dates and locations of the unauthorized withdrawals.
**3. Monitor Your Credit**
– Regularly monitor your credit report for any suspicious activity or unauthorized accounts. Consider placing a fraud alert or credit freeze on your credit reports to prevent new accounts from being opened in your name.
**4. Update Security Measures**
– Review and update the security measures on your accounts. This may include changing passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, and using secure password managers to protect your sensitive information.
**5. Report to Authorities**
– Report the fraudulent activity to the appropriate authorities, such as the Federal Trade Commission or your local law enforcement agency. This can help in the investigation and prosecution of the criminals responsible for the fraudulent activity.
**6. Consider Switching Banks**
– If you feel that your current bank is not providing adequate security or protection, consider switching to a different financial institution. Look for a bank with robust security measures and a track record of protecting their customers from fraud.
**7. Preventative Measures**
– Take proactive steps to prevent future instances of fraud, such as being cautious with sharing personal information online, monitoring your accounts regularly, and being wary of phishing attempts or unsolicited communication regarding your finances.
As you navigate through the process of addressing fraudulent activity on your account, remember to stay vigilant and proactive in protecting your financial well-being. By taking these steps and being aware of potential security threats, you can minimize the risk of falling victim to fraudulent activity in the future.
If you’ve experienced fraudulent activity on your bank account, know that you’re not alone. Many individuals have dealt with similar situations, and there are resources available to help you navigate through the process of recovering from identity theft and bank fraud.
Remember to stay informed, stay proactive, and seek assistance from trusted financial institutions and authorities to safeguard your finances and personal information. With the right precautions and preventative measures in place, you can minimize the risk of future fraudulent activity and continue to manage your finances with confidence and peace of mind.
My guess – you have a virus (key logger) on your phone or computer that is compromising not only your old info, but anything new you open as well. That also explains how they get around TFA, if they also have access to your device.
Examine everything, but given what you stated, it’s more than just one account that’s been compromised. It’s everything. Certainly your identity, but probably details of all accounts too, new or old. Examine your security.
Ask BofA to close the account and open a new one. Instruct them to turn off all automatic ACH, and wallet transactions and reset Visa/Mastercard automatic changes to NO.
If you don’t know how to clean your computer and phone of viruses get a professional like Geek Squad to do it for you.
Since the amount is identical to your rent call your landlord and ask if they have had a security breach. Follow up in writing.
Factory reset your phone and manually install your apps back (don’t add any that are sketchy). I’d also close the account and reopen a new one (BOA should be able to help with this and hopefully shouldn’t cost you anything).
In addition to what has been said, review any web browser extensions that you have installed. Instructions vary by browser.
And for the love of Pete, change all your passcodes and security answers! Don’t use the same ones for anything. Segmenting each email, bank, subscription, social media password is a small step….after cleaning your devices.
Move your account to a new bank. Get a new bank account number. Replace your phone and PC pronto.
Fix your devices, then get your money out of BofA and go to a small community credit union if there’s one nearby. You get personal service and they take things like this seriously. Plus, you’ll make more money on your savings accounts, and pay less on your loans.
I never knew about credit unions until I got married, and so i thought that high fees and no interest was just how it was.
My guess would be it’s an inside job. Someone working at boa who has access to your info. If you’re using 2fa a hacker shouldn’t be able to access your account, though I will say depending on what “factors” you’re using it might still be possible. The most secure would be a hardware security token like a yubikey. If you don’t have one of them you may want to get one and make it the only second factor on your account. I would also close your boa account and make an account at a credit union. Boa sucks anyway. If your account is still getting compromised after that someone has stolen your personal info, if they have your SS number, name, address and DOB that would be enough for them to impersonate you on the phone and bypass any security you have set up.
Report the fraud to the bank and transfer everything out to a new account, close that account
Because nobody really knows the source of the problem, you have to assume it could be anywhere. Certainly the most plausible is something local to your device(s) that you use for financial transactions. An insider at the bank could certainly create havoc, but the 2FA would seem to eliminate that as they shouldn’t have access to that crypto information. I am afraid the solution that’s available immediately is to fully reset all devices. Effectively starting over from scratch. And be very cautious about restoring backups that might contain infected files too. Best would be, at lease in the short term, to not restore anything — just maintain the backups for future possibilities. I don’t like the solution. But I really don’t see much of an alternative. If you a friend in the world of IT that you trust, now’s the time to ask for a huge favor. Good luck.
After all of the above, To be safe I would also freeze all your credit with the 3 agencies. This is easy and easy to override temporarily. Then setup a video interview to add more security to your IRS account so no one can file taxes on your behalf.
It’s possible it’s a key logger, like everyone else said, but I’m assuming they have all of your information as well. This is common information obtained during these kinds of thefts. So, in order to prevent this stuff change banks completely. Also, put an extra password on your bank account with the bank so that if anyone calls in and says they are you they cannot get any info or do anything unless they have this information. The bank employees can’t even view your account. Call the bank to do this.
Also, put an identity theft on your credit and chexsystems, they are the ones who run your information when new bank accounts are opened. Place a security freeze with them, doing it with the credit bureaus will do nothing to prevent people from opening checking accounts in your name.
They could be getting information from your computer, your phone, or by intercepting USPS mail. Check everything.
Are you still writing checks? Using a bill pay service that issues paper checks to businesses they can’t pay electronically?
All of your account information is on every check you write. Am a bank. Have seen an increase in check fraud. Far more old school than a key logger.
The villains have checks with your account on them.
##Get a new bank account.
Close your account. Get a new account. Ideally somewhere nicer than BoA. Move on with life.
Also I suggest you get an IRS Pin # to protect your tax return. Unfortunately the site is down until January, but as soon as it is up get one. You’ll need to first go through identify validation on id.me. After you obtain your first Pin #, you will have to put that Pin # on your tax return every year in order to e-file, but it will protect your tax return like a verification code. Note that the Pin # changes each year and you will have to add the Pin # every tax return year for the rest of your life. There’s no way to turn it off at this point (checked with the IRS last year – feel free to let me know if this status has changed).
How they deposited the money matters. If it was remote capture through the banking app vs ATM deposit, these have different exploitation points. The same with the exit of the funds. Was it with the card or app?
I bank with BofA also and experienced a fraudulent charge I called as soon as I received a notification that $70+ was charge on my CC. Luckily the person that hacked my card kinda stupid he used the card at 7-Eleven which brought red flags right away cause non of my family will spend that amount at 7-Eleven.
In addition to the suggestion about your devices, you might consider that the problem is with BofA somewhere. I had a similar thing happen with American Express, and even when they gave me a new card the fraudulent charges kept happening. It turns out that the algorithm AmEx uses to generate new cards is well-known by fraudsters, so when one card stops working they just move on to the next number. AmEx won’t do anything to stop it. I had to permanently cancel my account with them and never looked back.
Get a new phone and computer or only access your bank in person and not online while you’re at it I suggest a new google account pretty sure you got phised. Also 2FA is the quickest way to lose access to your accounts to someone else, if you want good security get a physical security key.
Tl/dr. Something similar happened to me years ago. I think it was an inside job with the tellers at Wells Fargo. Switched banks. Hasn’t happened since.