Unauthorized ATM Withdrawal: Bank not willing to help?

Hello.

There was a unauthorized atm withdrawal in my account(Bank of America). Facts: it was made while I was in Las Vegas, with a temporary card number which I never received and the bank says since my PIN number was used (I'm very concerned about security, so I'm the only one who knows it and I never wrote it down). Now, they are reviewing the case. Police didn't show willing to help also. And the bank says only the police can have the atm tapes to see who did it.

Question: What can I do against the bank? Can I sue them? What would be the chances?

Thank you!

You need to submit a claim to Bank of America. They will conduct an investigation and determine if the withdrawal was legit or not. You also need to file a police report. Do it, even if the police do not seem very helpful, the police HAVE to investigate. (This does not mean that they will set up roadblocks, but they have to investigate).

Second, you need to get a copy of your credit report. You can get a free credit report through the government every year. Check your report to see if someone may have opened accounts in your name, maybe your a victim of identity theft. Check out www.annualcreditreport.com

Third, you need to close your account with Bank of America. Have a new account issued and change your PIN number. Thieves are very tricky at getting personal information from you and will sometimes call repeatedly to places like Bank of America and try to impersonate you. They will do it over and over again, and slowly they will begin to get information about you. For example the customer service might ask for a past address. The thief does not know, but knows that you once lived on First Street. The thief will feign like he forgot and say "Oh I think it was something First Street." The customer service agent will say, "I have a 123 First Street." The thief will say, "That's it."

When he finally gets tripped up and they hang up on him, he can now call back and he knows you once lived on 123 First Street ... slowly they piece together more and more information about you until they have enough to impersonate you.

Also, sometimes thieves have little readers that they attach to the ATM machines. These readers are hard to detect and combined with a hidden camera somewhere they can get your card information and your pin number.

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Remember there are strict time limits on making a claim. It is usually 30 - 60 days, so act quickly. Any correspondence you send to the bank needs to be Certified Mail Return Receipt.

Don't think of suing the bank. The bank has dozens of attorneys on retainer that will quickly overwhelm you or your attorney with motion after motion until your case is dismissed. You will lose a lot more money that way.

You don't say how much money was involved. If they don't resolve it to your satisfaction I suppose you could take them to small claims court, but your only recourse may be to stop doing business with them...which I recommend, as it has been my experience that they don't care about their customers (unless they have big bucks).

Your congressman can help you with this. They love to do favors like this for their constituents. Also file a complaint with your state's bank regulating board.

you need to tey police again cause thats wrong on like the federal level big time fraud go to your bank see a manager if you have to use mad in your face tactics this is very serious