FraudFilter: Is this an inside job?
April 21, 2023 2:14 PM Subscribe
Twice now, someone has opened a bank account using my SSN and email address at a bank I'll call "Financial Institution of the United States." There are several highly suspicious aspects of this that I'll list below the fold, but in short, could this be someone within the institution?
In late 2022 I received a series of emails about applying and being approved for a checking account at "FIUS". This was on the email account I have on file with that bank as I have a long-time checking and two savings accounts there. Suspicious that they were phishing attempts, I contacted FIUS who said there were no new accounts associated with my profile. Great - delete and ignore.
A month later I received a mailed-to-my-home FIUS statement for that new account and the only transaction was a service fee. Called FIUS again who this time checked my SSN and found out there was a different profile associated with it and it was indeed this new account. The last four digits of the phone number associated with the account did not match mine. FIUS froze the account, opened an investigation, and eventually closed the account as fraudulent. I checked my credit reports (fine) and put a fraud alert on them, reported it to the police (who said they had several similar cases), changed the email I used for the account from Email 1 to Email 2, reset two-factor authentication, changed passwords, and just generally went through and tightened up everything else I could think of.
Fast forward to this morning, when I opened Email 1 to find an identical series of emails. Called FIUS again, yes, another account opened in the exact same manner, they froze it and are opening another investigation. Once again reset passwords, got a new login for my real accounts, just in case, etc. I also discovered that banks (or this one anyway) don't pay attention to fraud alerts on your credit report; I needed to freeze my SSN on another system entirely so banks would know not to open an account with my SSN without additional verification.
I'm finding this a little baffling/suspicious for a couple of reasons. The first in today's series of messages to "Email 1" was to "verify your email address" but the account was opened without this happening. I could see if someone had hacked into my email account they might be able to delete emails, but if so the only thing they deleted was the verification reply - if they had access, why wouldn't they delete all the associated emails so I would never know about it? For the same reason, why use my actual home address, since that also alerts me?
I know that several banks were recently found to be opening fake accounts using their customers' information - could I be a victim of this? I am making plans to move my accounts which would be a huge pain but I'm wondering what else to do. Everything else financially appears to be just fine, but of course I am monitoring it all closely.
In late 2022 I received a series of emails about applying and being approved for a checking account at "FIUS". This was on the email account I have on file with that bank as I have a long-time checking and two savings accounts there. Suspicious that they were phishing attempts, I contacted FIUS who said there were no new accounts associated with my profile. Great - delete and ignore.
A month later I received a mailed-to-my-home FIUS statement for that new account and the only transaction was a service fee. Called FIUS again who this time checked my SSN and found out there was a different profile associated with it and it was indeed this new account. The last four digits of the phone number associated with the account did not match mine. FIUS froze the account, opened an investigation, and eventually closed the account as fraudulent. I checked my credit reports (fine) and put a fraud alert on them, reported it to the police (who said they had several similar cases), changed the email I used for the account from Email 1 to Email 2, reset two-factor authentication, changed passwords, and just generally went through and tightened up everything else I could think of.
Fast forward to this morning, when I opened Email 1 to find an identical series of emails. Called FIUS again, yes, another account opened in the exact same manner, they froze it and are opening another investigation. Once again reset passwords, got a new login for my real accounts, just in case, etc. I also discovered that banks (or this one anyway) don't pay attention to fraud alerts on your credit report; I needed to freeze my SSN on another system entirely so banks would know not to open an account with my SSN without additional verification.
I'm finding this a little baffling/suspicious for a couple of reasons. The first in today's series of messages to "Email 1" was to "verify your email address" but the account was opened without this happening. I could see if someone had hacked into my email account they might be able to delete emails, but if so the only thing they deleted was the verification reply - if they had access, why wouldn't they delete all the associated emails so I would never know about it? For the same reason, why use my actual home address, since that also alerts me?
I know that several banks were recently found to be opening fake accounts using their customers' information - could I be a victim of this? I am making plans to move my accounts which would be a huge pain but I'm wondering what else to do. Everything else financially appears to be just fine, but of course I am monitoring it all closely.
Response by poster: It is called Chex Systems.
I've been checking my credit reports regularly (as well as today after this happened) and am not seeing anything unusual (and have a fraud alert on it) which is why I'm finding this suspicious.
I do have a fraud specialist at FIUS.
posted by Preserver at 2:52 PM on April 21, 2023 [6 favorites]
I've been checking my credit reports regularly (as well as today after this happened) and am not seeing anything unusual (and have a fraud alert on it) which is why I'm finding this suspicious.
I do have a fraud specialist at FIUS.
posted by Preserver at 2:52 PM on April 21, 2023 [6 favorites]
Wells Fargo got caught setting up unwanted accounts for its customers a few year ago. There's a Wikipedia page about it:
"Wells Fargo clients began to notice the fraud after being charged unanticipated fees and receiving unexpected credit or debit cards or lines of credit. Initial reports blamed individual Wells Fargo branch workers and managers for the problem, as well as sales incentives associated with selling multiple "solutions" or financial products. This blame was later shifted to a top-down pressure from higher-level management to open as many accounts as possible through cross-selling."
posted by Paul Slade at 3:16 PM on April 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
"Wells Fargo clients began to notice the fraud after being charged unanticipated fees and receiving unexpected credit or debit cards or lines of credit. Initial reports blamed individual Wells Fargo branch workers and managers for the problem, as well as sales incentives associated with selling multiple "solutions" or financial products. This blame was later shifted to a top-down pressure from higher-level management to open as many accounts as possible through cross-selling."
posted by Paul Slade at 3:16 PM on April 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
Yes, it could be an inside job, done by a bank employee desperate to meet their sales targets to avoid being fired. The CBC did an expose of similar issues at Canadian banks about five years ago.
posted by heatherlogan at 3:18 PM on April 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by heatherlogan at 3:18 PM on April 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
While it's impossible to rule out internal misconduct, this sounds more like a bad actor has got your PII and FIUS does not have great fraud detection. If that's the case, moving your accounts won't help any, at least not with that specific problem. I would put an actual credit freeze on, not just a fraud alert, to reduce the odds of unauthorized credit cards being opened.
(The fake account issue has gotten so much attention in the banking world--it's a scam that customers can clearly understand and feel offended by--that I would be surprised to hear there was a lot of it going forward for another few years, but never bet against stupid.)
posted by praemunire at 3:21 PM on April 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
(The fake account issue has gotten so much attention in the banking world--it's a scam that customers can clearly understand and feel offended by--that I would be surprised to hear there was a lot of it going forward for another few years, but never bet against stupid.)
posted by praemunire at 3:21 PM on April 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
CashApp also have a Reddit account which accepts and respond to direct messages. I've only used it to report scammers but it might work in your case too.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 3:33 AM on April 22, 2023
posted by Busy Old Fool at 3:33 AM on April 22, 2023
Unfortunately the scammers will always gravitate to the bank with the weakest controls, that would be my guess as to what's going on.
posted by wnissen at 10:04 AM on April 24, 2023
posted by wnissen at 10:04 AM on April 24, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
Please - can you share what this “other system” is?? We are battling this with an elderly relative, and it’s still happening after 2 years. It’s awful.
From what we’ve learned on this end: check your credit report. We keep seeing repeat accidents being opened in conjunction with lots of soft pulls by cash.app or nerdwallet. Cash.app will not return calls and do not have a contact system outside of “downloading the app” which we won’t do. Nerdwallet said they closed an account with the relative’s personal information but I don’t think they are preventing NEW accounts to be opened.
In your case, call the financial institution again and ask for a fraud specialist. Every account has an audit trail - they can find out who in the bank opened the accounts and if it’s the same person. It’s also possible that your credentials are on the dark web now and are being used by multiple people.
Good luck in getting it resolved!
posted by Silvery Fish at 2:41 PM on April 21, 2023 [2 favorites]