Couple says they're victims of identity theft and their bank made it worse

"Ameriloan, 500 fast cash and the list goes on and on" William Raley tells me.  

He's sitting with his wife Pam and shows me a pile of papers that the couple says is a sign of the nightmare they've been facing since late December.  The papers are bank records, a copy of a police report and faxes they've sent to Bank of America's fraud department.  

Mr. Raley says in late December, he discovered he was overdrawn.  He'd just made a deposit so he was concerned. He says the person at the bank promised to investigate.  Raley says he found $1,200 worth of charges from places he'd never heard of. He thought maybe he had lost some check or had some checks stolen from him which is how someone got his bank account number.

The Raleys say the bank did return some of the money but the account remained open and Mr. Raley continued to make deposits.  But the couple says that the withdrawls continued.  Then they filed a police report and were told they would need to fill out an affidavit and send it to the bank's fraud department.  They say they did all those things although they were told by the bank at a couple of points, that some of the material had not been received so they faxed it again.

The couple says by this time, more time had passed, more withdrawls had been made and they were being hit with overdraft fees.  Mr. Raley claims between a five week period from mid-December to almost the end of January, he deposited about $4,000, which  as he puts it "just kind of seemed to disappear between the withdrawls and the fees.

The Raleys say the account was closed in mid-March but by then the damage had already been done.  They want the bank to return the money.  

Ross Howard from the Better Business Bureau looked over all their papers.  "It certainly seems this is the work of a criminal," he told me.

Howard says in most cases, banks will work with customers, but says if it had been his own account, he would have wanted it closed immediately.  "It appears the bank initially did provide some money back, the problem is it continued to happen because the account continued to be open," says Howard.  "If it could have been handled differently, for example the bank could have put a fraud alert on the account.  Some banks will make it so they give you a phone call before any transaction goes through to make sure you approved it."

Howard says because of the electronic age, perhaps it's not as feasible for banks to do a fraud alert as it used to be. And he says banks may not necessarily be obligated to return money, especially if the suspected fraud is not proven to the bank's satisfaction. "Still, he (Mr. Raley) is in a relationship with his bank," Howard says.  "And they need to help and share in the responsibility of this account, especially when he's called it to their attention and explained it's not his doing and that it happened as a result of a criminal."

I emailed a representative from Bank of America who told me they would contact the Raleys directly to re-visit the matter.  Mrs. Raley called to tell me she had heard from someone at the bank.  However, a few days later, Mrs. Raley called to tell me they had just received a letter from a collection agency on behalf of Bank of America, and that the bank was trying to collect $153.00 in overdraft fees from the closed account.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency oversees large banks like Bank of America.  A spokesman from the organization told me that any consumer who is dis-satisfied with treatment from a bank can filed a complaint.  He encouraged the Raleys to do so.  Mrs. Raley indicates the complaint was filed and that she was then contacted by an official from Bank of America, who asked her to fax them all of her records.

The Raleys are still hopeful that somehow the money will be returned.  They say they've been behind on bills since the whole fiasco started six months ago.  Howard says anyone who believes they are a victim of identity theft needs to not only file a police report but contact the credit reporting agencies.  "The next issue is what has happened to these people's credit," he says.