| Dec 16th, 2007 I am almost mad enough to kick the cat. But he is one of the dearest
little friend I know.
I never would believe what has happened to me on November 18th
and which seems to continue
to effect my life. Here is the story as I know it. I am throwing this out
to the universe in hopes that somebody out there knows who did this and how this
happened.
On November 18 somebody walked into the Wal-Mart Store in Spencer
Iowa
and purchased 2 camcorders with a extended warranty or maintenance
policy.
Problem was the check had a routing number and bank account that was mine
here in Texas.
I have since learned that it may have been 2 black women. (seen on the stores
tape )
Well I am somewhat handicapped, white, fat and old.
I no longer drive. Barely can walk. Use a electric cart in the
stores.
My husband was helping to close down a bait shop here locally.
He drives a 20 year old van that needs a new heater.
Not anything you would take to Iowa during the current weather.
They used 2 checks that added up to over $1300.00
When it hit my account ( thank God it had a low balance as I had
already paid all my month expenses) the two fraud
checks bounced.
Now as far as I can find out from the Wal-Mart Check Center
the checks did not have our names and they used some other I.D.
They also told me which Wal-Mart store had taken the checks
My bank got right on it as they noticed that the number of the checks
did not match the ones I was currently using. They had me put stop
payment and fraud notices on the checks.
We also blocked a large section of the check numbers just in case they
would try it again.
I contacted Wal-Mart Check Center.
I could not contact Telecheck , I tried for 30 minutes , as they
have a complicated menu selection that make them unreachable. They
probably don’t want to be bothered by finding out the whole
story before they start messing up peoples lives. I think other people
have had a lot of trouble with them. I told
the man at Wal-Mart that they should fire the lot.
I called the Wal-Mart store in Spencer, was referred by the
manager to a lady named Linda. She would not tell me what names were on
the checks or any other information as she was worried about the crooks
privacy. But she assured me that she would pass the matter on to her
security people. I attempted to contact the Spencer Police Dept
twice. First time the e-mail came back and the next time it appeared to go
through. I found out later they did not get the e-mail.
Next the Telecheck people or Wal-Mart turned the matter over to a
collection agency named TRS Recovery in Houston. They sent a rather
hateful demand for the amount on both checks.
Nothing I had done seem to have helped to straighten this matter out
and it seemed it was just getting worse.
I then went to my local bank and got a letter written by one of their
Asst. Vice President. Made copies of the fraud statement and stop payment
notice.
I furnished the collection people with every thing they could possibly
need to straighten this mess out. I told them they had 3 business days to
get this corrected. That was on December 9th
They have not even gave me an acknowledgment of my letter as of Dec. 16th.
.
Glad I sent it by registered mail.
I also wrote and sent a certified letter to Mr. Scott, CEO of
Wal-Mart Corp. So far no acknowledgment from him or his office either.
That surprised me as most people who live in
Ivory Towers like to hear from the common folks once in a while.
I decided to try and contact the Spencer Iowa Police Dept. again, this time by registered mail.
This time I got a response from an police officer in Spencer. So far I
have missed connecting but will be talking to him Monday with any luck.
Now as I see it. They have a picture of the crooks, they have fraud and
stop notices from my bank. They have a letter from a bank official. They
have letters from me. What in the hell do these people want? The Wal-Mart
store took the fake check and then handed it back to the crooks. They did
not have either my I.D. or name. My next step is to contact my local FBI
office as this was Interstate thief and then go to see a lawyer. An apology
would have helped but if I go to a lawyer
I am going to want more for my aggravation and lost of good name, than an
apology .
We are afraid to try and buy anything by check as they have
branded us a hot check artist.
The worse problem has been that I had to open a new account and then go
to Social Security office to change the routing and account for their
records. We have been singing " If I make it through December" already,
now we have to worry if we will get our Social Security check in January.
I like Wal-Mart stores. Been dealing with them for 17-20 years.
Never a problem in all those years. I like my local Wal-Mart.
The people there are nice, friendly and know us by name.
But I will never
use a check in there ever again.
My advice to anybody listening , is to use
cash at Wal-Mart and don’t get into their computer system with
checks. . You will be asking for trouble. No way to know
who will have access to your account routing number. Don't know if I will
use my bank card there either.
If I don’t have access to cash from the bank I won’t buy
anything there until I do.
To be continued.......................................J.E.H..
Update
Monday December 17, 2007
Finally reached the officer in Spencer Iowa. Very impressed with their
kindness. They had to plug me into his cell phone as he was on his way out
of town. Did not learn much but he confirmed the area is
getting hit by a couple of shady characters . They may be connected
to
same scams in Mo. and Nebraska. He reassured me that the police are
working on this case and as soon as he was free next week he would be able
to give the matter more attention. Finally I have reached some body who
may give a dam. Can't wait to see if I get a letter from the recovery firm
or Wal-Mart today.
In the mean time if you know anything about the people who are doing this
or have had something like this happen to you while dealing with Wal-Mart
please contact me. I for one don't want to play the victim when
these leaches attack me or what belongs to me. Maybe if we all attack back
we can run them back under the rock they crawled out from under.
Send e-mail to thecrystallady@ hotmail.com
Put Crooks in the subject line so I won't miss your note.................................
J.E.H.
Tuesday December 18, 2007
Well ladies and gentlemen , here I am again.
I have had an interested day doing research to see how many other
people have had this problem of checking account numbers thief. I put the
words "Bad Checks Wal-Mart in to the search engine at Google. I got
over 200,000 entries. I browsed for a couple hours to see if I
could get a handle on the problem. I also ran "Stolen Bank
Account Numbers Wal-Mart" and got 362.000 entries. No way to read them
all but read enough to draw a conclusion or two.
First thing I figured out is that Wal-Mart has one heck of a problem with
bad checks. Some of it is their own fault. Most of the time they don't
check I.D. Don't want to slow down the flow of money into their tills I
guess. In some cases they make the payer sign a receipt. However
this is still going to cause problems for law enforcement as they give the
check cashed back to the person who gives it. Nobody appears to
check signatures anyway.
Seems hot checks were a bad cash cow for local District Attorneys
who were able to make millions of dollars in collecting from dead
beats. Once they collected from check writers they could collect
additional fees toward their office expenses. Wal-Mart was one of their
biggest clients. One third of all bad checks in Mo are written in
Wal-Mart. That meant that the state
or county government were depending on the funds to help with their
programs , Mo. got from 25 to 75 dollars a head. Although in Kansas
a state law only allowed them $10.00
However recently Wal-Mart decided to eliminate state involvement and
turn the recovery directly to the collection agencies Guess it
was cheaper. I think that is how Telecheck was able to turn me over
to T.R.S Recovery in Houston with out verifying any of the
information showing that my case was check fraud.
From what I gathered that did not make the government people happy as they
would have to find ways to replace the lost money they previously made
from Wal-Mart.
From what I read , you really do not want to cash checks at
Wal-Mart anywhere.
You are just asking for trouble.
Don't use your bank card as a debit and give the store your pin number.
Better yet do not use you bank card anywhere but at the bank to get cash.
If some body steals that number they can clean your account out.
Even if you use your bank card at local cafes or stores it is very easy
for some dark soul to
copy the number.
You would be better off using a credit card as it is easier to deal
with credit companies
and it limits your liability from thief.
Don't answer any e-mail from Wal-Mart that asks for you to update
information regarding your bank account or credit card. Don't put that
I.D. stuff on the internet for any company.
One Pishing scam is an offer to send you a payment if you will give them
your right arm.
Found a story from Ky. It told that on Sept 21 2006 how 3 black
males got caught passing bad checks at a Wal-Mart store while dressed as
Women You could not tell from their pictures that they were
men. I don't think they could be the ones working the Spencer Iowa
area because last I read they were in jail in Ky. But I made copies of
their pictures just in case I can get a copy of the security tape.
Read a story about how some employees at the gas station at a Sam's took
credit cards numbers and used them in a scam operation.
I thought it was interesting the story about a man from Richardson
Texas who ordered new checks and they never came. But some body hit his
account. He said he knew at least 10 other people who had bank problems.
Funny the check makers were in Des Moines Iowa
Close to where the hot checks were wrote at Wal-Mart on my account
My checks were made in Shoreview, Mi. and the last order before the thief
of my account numbers did arrive safely. But may just pass this story
on to the police in Spencer.
as they seem to be having problem in that area.
To be continued..................................................
J.E.H.
Update December 23,2007
Well finally in yesterdays post was a letter from Telecheck.
Seems after an re-investigation they have decided that the checks
were fraud. Dah!
Not a hint of an apology for the inconvenience or worry they caused by
their automatic
assumption that I was guilty of bad check passing. What happened to the
assumption that a person was innocent until proven guilty. Maybe we should
, see if we as consumers could get a law passed that the collection
agencies had to do a review of complaints. If they have a denial of guilt
they would be required to reframe from listing us in their computers until
they had reviewed the evidence and then they could make a decision
as to their next move. in this age of computers, electronic monitors in
stores. plastic credit cards it is more important than ever that
they should avoid embarrassing their customers and cast aspersions on
their good name,
If they make mistakes based on their not handling the denial or
transaction properly they should have to pay the consumer an amount equal
to the expenses spend to straighten the mess out and compensation
for the distress they caused. We were the victims of some low life that is
too lazy to work who spends his day leeching off the body of
society. We should not be victimizes by the merchants and vendors they
hire to service their problems.
Some body else wrote that " old Sam Walton would be turning over in his
grave" So far
I have not heard from Wal-Mart about my letter. Could be they did
something internally which was why Telecheck finally acknowledged my
letter. Could be that with so many problems complaints are so
numerous that they can't get too them. What do you think?
J.E.H
Update Jan. 07, 2008
Well we got our Jan. Social Security Check in the correct
account at the proper time.
Thank God for small favors. Nothing new to report on the
perpetrators.
Friends if I had stock in Wal-Mart I would un load it at this point.
Got a form letter from their suppose "customer service" in response to my
letter to the CEO of Wal-Mart. I did not think I would get a personal
letter but figured I would get a polite note from some body in his office.
I was not only disappointed but the more I thought about the letter the
more angry I got.
First time I have ever contacted the boss, senator,
governor etc and had my letter completely ignored. Even E-Bays former CEO
had the manners to answer my note to him. As did a former
governor and a senator from Arkansas. CEO of a major computer maker.
Here I have a problem caused by some un authorized
person using my account in one of their store. How do they respond. Why
they send me a form letter that was not actually signed by anybody at
Wal-Mart. ( Unknown Person Customer Relations, Written
Correspondence Team )They had checked a block that told
me to send them my Bank routing and Account number. letter. Now I
had already supplied this to the check center.
Here is a copy of the letter that is being mailed to
this unknown entity.
1-5-2008
Customer Service
Written Correspondence Team
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Ref 18264454
Dear Sir or Madam,
If that form letter I just received was intended to aggravate the
situation it did its job.
First I enclosed enough information for you to identify the problem.
I gave the bank routing and account numbers to your check center.
Also my I.D. information.
I contacted the store in Spencer Iowa.
I wrote the collection agency in Houston.
I furnished the needed information to the Spencer Iowa Police Dept.
I had the bank cancel a large block of checks and stop access to my
account.
They realized I did not write those checks as I never had the numbers used
on the checks.
I had to cancel that checking account
Had to have Social Security re route my monthly checks.
Which involved a trip to a neighboring town.
Lucky we got our Jan. social security check.
Update:
The collection people have finally sent me a letter saying that after
they had investigated the case, they decided that it was fraud and not us.
They should have found that out before they turned us in for collection
and branded us as writers of hot checks.
The police dept in Spencer seem to think it was a black women who
passed the checks.
You apparently don’t maintain any contact or access with your own check
center.
The question of the routing number is now mute.
The fact that you requested them is in its self suspicious.
You have caused me undue stress in the way the whole problem was handled.
Since it was up to me to handle the problem I will take steps to see
that it never happens again.
So in the future I will avoid buying anything from your stores on a
regular basis.
I am sure Brookshire will appreciate my food business
Then I will only use cash to purchase anything I buy in your store.
I will not in the future give you any checks so that my routing number
does not get into your system.
Currently I am paying my bills with money orders so not to get my account
numbers in circulation with anybody.
I will advise my friends that to do business with you by check opens then
to unnecessary risk of somebody getting their bank account numbers.
I think that your sloppy business habits cause much of this event.
Other stores request I.D. for checks or credit cards. I buy something from
Wal-mart and never get carded.
The person who did this had to have access to some bank routing numbers
and accounts.
They did not have my name or I.D.
Perhaps your company has some problems in the way they handle checks.
Joan E. High
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