Bad beat: Two PFA users who bought pieces of me at the WSOP had my payment check to them stolen, and my bank account was used to buy shit at Target

It seemed so simple. Two guys who bought pieces of me in the WSOP -- Tellafriend and one other guy who doesn't post on the forum -- requested checks for their pieces of my WSOP.

Because I went 2-for-7 in cashing and only cashed 4 figures both times, they ended up losing, but of course were still entitled to their proper share of what they bought.

These two guys elected for me to send them checks, which I did on 7-18.

I mailed both checks via a secured "Blue Postal Mailbox" on 7-18.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-conte...12/Mailbox.jpg

Neither check ever got there.

While I cannot prove this, it appears that both letters were stolen by someone working at the post office, and opened up.

In the following 8 days, someone created a check in their name using my routing number and account number. This is easy to do once you have my checking account info.

You just need to go to one of countless places on the web, order checks, enter my routing # and account # on the website (along with your own name), and suddenly you'll have checks in your name with my account number.

This person then went to Target and obtained a debit card using this check, which would be debiting my bank account!

They gave their own social security # and presented their own ID when doing this! I guess it's possible they used a fake ID and a stolen SSN, but it's verified that they did NOT use my name or social when setting up the debit card.

They then took this debit card on July 26, and made two purchases at two different Target stores. One was in Lancaster, CA, and one was in Palmdale, CA. Both of these areas are close to one another, but are about 60-70 miles north of Los Angeles. I live even farther away from those two cities than that.

I do not believe this was targeted at me personally, but rather a crime of opportunity by a postal worker.

At this time, Target will not tell me the name of the person who actually set up the account, but I am trying to get that out of them.

I decided to close my bank account related to this (for obvious reasons), and have opened up another with a completely different account #.

It was incredibly difficult to get Wells Fargo to agree to completely disassociate the new account from the old account. They kept wanting exceptions made to put "certain transactions through" for 90 days, and I kept telling them no. I want any transaction against that account now to bounce.

This is also really annoying because I need to set up all of the direct debit auto-pay stuff connected to that account, and I will also lose online access to all previous transactions once the account is closed (for the moment, I reduced it down to $1).

While I cannot prove it was the post office, the disappearance of TWO letters containing checks on July 18th, followed by the timing of this fraudulent debit card created through my account (8 days later), makes it very likely that's what happened.

I will be reporting this to the postmaster general's office, though I imagine it will go nowhere.

Between this and the weird Bovada account freezing (which is unrelated), this hasn't been a good week for me.

Confirmed that the second guy never got his check either (at the time of the first post, I just noticed he hadn't cashed it, and Tellafriend told me he never got it.)

So someone at the post office is the very likely suspect here.

I wonder if the route of the mail passes through Lancaster/Palmdale when traveling to the east coast.

:wtf

Druff,

More likely the check was stolen out of the collection box by thieves who washed the pen ink off your check and then filled it out for themselves.

Never mail a check using your mail box or a post office collection box...take your check to the post office itself and drop it through a wall slot

People steal mail out of personal mail boxes and collection boxes (using sticky tape).

Also, if you write a check, use a gel ink pen, the ink is harder to wash the ink off than the ink of an ordinary ball point (google youtube.com check washing). Further, get checkstock with a patterned watermark and a hologram.

And for that matter, why didn't you use bank electronic check rather than writing a personal check?

Anyway, file a fraud claim with your bank the bank should restore the money to your account.

......not trying to troll, as im generally interested in how the USPS could've done this.....

my question: how did a post office worker (who's under video surveillance) know it was a check and then take it.

it's not like they just take bins (which is what's inside that blue box before it's taken to a relay box (most likely green with no slot) and go through them.

youd be surprised at how facist the USPS is regarding stealing mail.

I got yelled at last week for reaching over the counter to get the certified stamp (which I do all the time) and was threatened with a "don't fuck with the post office we are worse than the FBI"

point is: how could they know. they didn't know. they couldn't know.

would you risk federal prison and steal and enevelope you have no idea what's in it?

is it possible you got scammed a different way and it's all coincidence?


next time use FedEx.


edit:

Roger brings up a good point I forgot about. people fishing outta the post box before it got collected and taken to the relay.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GrenadaRoger

Druff,

More likely the check was stolen out of the collection box by thieves who washed the pen ink off your check and then filled it out for themselves.

Never mail a check using your mail box or a post office collection box...take your check to the post office itself and drop it through a wall slot

People steal mail out of personal mail boxes and collection boxes (using sticky tape).

Also, if you write a check, use a gel ink pen, the ink is harder to wash the ink off than the ink of an ordinary ball point (google youtube.com check washing). Further, get checkstock with a patterned watermark and a hologram.

And for that matter, why didn't you use bank electronic check rather than writing a personal check?

Anyway, file a fraud claim with your bank the bank should restore the money to your account.

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Nothing was washed.

Target was presented with a blank check in the name of the scammer, or someone else the scammer was pretending to be, along with the ID and social security # matching that name. The check had my bank account # on it. My name was not used to set up the Target account -- only my bank account number!

While it is possible that my check was fished out, I don't think it was likely.

The mailbox in question is on a busy street.

It is much more likely that a trained eye at the post office noticed the look/feel of an envelope with a check, and they surreptitiously stole all of them that appeared that way. This would also explain why BOTH of my checks disappeared.

The postal worker collecting the mail from the blue box is not monitored between collecting the mail and driving it back to the post office, for example.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LarryLaffer

I got yelled at last week for reaching over the counter to get the certified stamp

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http://image1.masterfile.com/getImag...-for-Fruit.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LarryLaffer

my question: how did a post office worker (who's under video surveillance) know it was a check and then take it.

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Excellent question.

A true Druff fan suspects he buys the cheapest envelopes available which are nearly transparent because they are made of crummy paper.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Henry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LarryLaffer

I got yelled at last week for reaching over the counter to get the certified stamp

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http://image1.masterfile.com/getImag...-for-Fruit.jpg

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lol if that's a dig in my height again you need to grow the fuck up. even Druff would have to reach other the counter for the stamp if he were a messenger, on his last run, and needing to gtfo of the post office.


grow up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sanlmar

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LarryLaffer

my question: how did a post office worker (who's under video surveillance) know it was a check and then take it.

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Excellent question.

A true Druff fan suspects he buys the cheapest envelopes available which are nearly transparent because they are made of crummy paper.

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Strangely enough, as I put the check in each envelope on 7/18, I actually thought, "Maybe I should put a piece of paper around the check so nobody sees it's a check. Nah... these are 'security' envelopes, so that should be good enough."

:baddecision

FYI, even with security envelopes, you can shine the iPhone's flashlight onto the envelope and see the shape of the contents inside.

The iPhone flashlight trick also often works to reveal the info under "scratch off" tickets, though I have to imagine the lottery took better protective measures to prevent that (I've never tried it with lottery tickets).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sanlmar

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LarryLaffer

my question: how did a post office worker (who's under video surveillance) know it was a check and then take it.

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Excellent question.

A true Druff fan suspects he buys the cheapest envelopes available which are nearly transparent because they are made of crummy paper.

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true, many of my clients (particularly the elderly) pay their fees by mailing a check wrapped in paper inside the envelope...that way the check does not show through the envelope...

another reminder why cash in envelope is king, probably

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WillieMcFML

another reminder why cash in envelope is king, probably

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:knife

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GrenadaRoger

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sanlmar

Excellent question.

A true Druff fan suspects he buys the cheapest envelopes available which are nearly transparent because they are made of crummy paper.

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true, many of my clients (particularly the elderly) pay their fees by mailing a check wrapped in paper inside the envelope...that way the check does not show through the envelope...

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I have clients do the exact same thing.

Security envelopes are shit by the way.

I'm still finding it hard to believe the post man knew that it was a check by the weight of it. a lot of things can be the same size of a check: like a money order.


I'd say it's a better chance they'd steal a credit card application before they start going at the envelopes that they have no idea what is inside.


but hey, the PO workers in the trucks do have time on their hands. they could just sit there and go through it.


shit.


maybe they took my court hearing notification out of the mail to fuck with me.

and what's with Target being the joint for scammers. I feel like every identity theft story I hear some how ends up with the scammer buying stuff at Target.


is target like the fuckin easiest mark ever?


why not take that shit to Best Buy and grab a 70" plasma on someone else's dime.

Speaking of Target...

The Lancaster one was SUPER uncooperative. They basically told me, "Show us a police report or get the fuck off the phone."

It's actually my right to know where my own money went. A merchant can't say, "Your money was used to buy something in our store, but we won't tell you what was bought or who bought it." If it's my money, and I can prove who I am, then they are required to provide me with all details of the purchase.

But that was the attitude that the Lancaster Target took, even after I offered to prove my identity in ways such as going to a notary or showing my ID in a local Target store to the manager. They still told me to shove it.

The Palmdale one was much better. A nice girl there was very sympathetic, told me what I needed to know (but sadly she had no access to the actual debit card info or what was bought), and told me who to call to find out the rest of the info. I wish I had called her first, but I picked Lancaster first.

Like day and night with the two locations.

The Lancaster people actually hung up on me after refusing to tell me even the name of their own store manager or when he would be in tomorrow, which s also against store policy to do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Speaking of Target...

The Lancaster one was SUPER uncooperative. They basically told me, "Show us a police report or get the fuck off the phone."

It's actually my right to know where my own money went. A merchant can't say, "Your money was used to buy something in our store, but we won't tell you what was bought or who bought it." If it's my money, and I can prove who I am, then they are required to provide me with all details of the purchase.

But that was the attitude that the Lancaster Target took, even after I offered to prove my identity in ways such as going to a notary or showing my ID in a local Target store to the manager. They still told me to shove it.

The Palmdale one was much better. A nice girl there was very sympathetic, told me what I needed to know (but sadly she had no access to the actual debit card info or what was bought), and told me who to call to find out the rest of the info. I wish I had called her first, but I picked Lancaster first.

Like day and night with the two locations.

The Lancaster people actually hung up on me after refusing to tell me even the name of their own store manager or when he would be in tomorrow, which s also against store policy to do.

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what was the amount? I can't leave target without dropping 2 c notes.

Larry, the girl I'm seeing right now weighs a buck ten. She's basically the same size as you. I mean she may have an inch or two on you, but basically the same size. I can pick her up, fuck her. Pin her against a wall. Toss her around. Treat her like a rag doll. You know, just manhandle her in general.

Oddly, the Lancaster one was only $24 and change, and the Palmdale one was $175.

Not sure which was done first.

I was assuming Lancaster was done first, as sort of a "test", and then they went bigger at Palmdale.

Interestingly, they didn't do anything more between the 26th and today when I shut down the bank account.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Oddly, the Lancaster one was only $24 and change, and the Palmdale one was $175.

Not sure which was done first.

I was assuming Lancaster was done first, as sort of a "test", and then they went bigger at Palmdale.

Interestingly, they didn't do anything more between the 26th and today when I shut down the bank account.

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like I said, no one leaves target without dropping a c note or 2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Henry

Larry, the girl I'm seeing right now weighs a buck ten. She's basically the same size as you. I mean she may have an inch or two on you, but basically the same size. I can pick her up, fuck her. Pin her against a wall. Toss her around. Treat her like a rag doll. You know, just manhandle her in general.

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so you abuse your girlfriend. nice.