What do I do if someone forges my check

Question

Someone recently forged my signature and used that to withdraw money from my account.

I already called the bank (Chase) and they put a restriction on that account and open a new account for me. They have issued me a credit against the forged check, but I am still worried.

• This person clearly has my routing and account information
• He could still write fraudulent checks in my name to merchants or individuals
• I have asked Chase if there is a way for them to inform check verification services such as Tele-Check and EWS (Early Warning) to put a flag with checks associated with the compromised account number. Dealing with Chase is extremely frustrating. I keep getting bounced between different departments and still haven't received an answer to this question. There must be a way to do this. If Chase is unwilling to do this, how can I do this myself
• What else should I be doing to protect myself in this situation?

Answer 1

Things are not the same as they were 15 to 20 years ago. Back then, if you wrote a bad check, they would put it on the wall of certain business establishments so all your friends and neighbors would know about it. That is rarely done anymore, and if it is done to you with this compromised account, you might have grounds for a libel suit.

What many merchants have these days, for when you pay by check, is a reader that verifies that the account is open and perhaps is if there is sufficient funds. In your case the scanner will probably indicate that your old account is closed. A time or two of this is and the thief will move onto someone else.

Please be advised that often times these thefts occur by someone you know. This person may attempt to do the same thing with your new account.

The reason you cannot get an answer from Chase is two fold. First they don't know, and the second is they don't care. The victim of this crime is the merchant. They will debited the bad check amount, and likely have a fee associated with this bad check. At this point, I would concentrate more on protecting your checking account information.

Check fraud is very easy to commit and this is one of many reason people prefer debit cards, or even cash, over checks. You may consider moving to one of those payment methods and perhaps only use checks to pay bills.

Chase already helped you with the key thing to do, shut down the compromised account and get a new account number. When a similar thing happened to me, I had no choice to end a 25 year banking relationship when the bank made it very difficult to shut down the compromised checking account. I now bank at Chase.