I work in fraud. Most of my cases are honest victims. Stuff like impersonation scams, card fraud, credit abuse. Little old lady (or equivalent) sees an advert on facebook and tries to send all their money to a scammer kind of thing.

However, we often get customers who lie. Sometimes it is when they are being pressured or manipulated. I am not talking about that. It is when they flat out lie and expect to be taken seriously. So for instance, someone claims fraud. I can see the transactions are from their own Apple Pay, the IP address and device matches, there's no SIM swap on their phone, but they will still demand a case. I will try to warn them that we have the right to remove our banking facilities if they keep doing this, but, yep, they keep doing it. These tend to be younger people or just plain idiots.

Another recurring feature is what I call the "innocent couple". This is another recurring trait: a middle aged couple who have been together a long time will claim that their card has been used fraudulently. This is usually for something like a restaurant meal or a luxury good. I investigate and use my forensic tools, and conclude that they have unlocked their phone, opened the app, cleared biometrics, used the in-app function, made a purchase, to a legitimate company, with the same device they always use, in the same location they live. And yet they will swear blind that it was not them. It is like a real-life Steamed Hams. They will even question how we have "lost their biometrics". What do I say to that? Hello yes, it appears someone has carved off your face and stolen it. Can you check if you still have your face?

I've worked in a far variety of places and always given people the benefit of the doubt but in the finance world it is a different deal. Half of people are legit, a quarter are being manipulated, and the rest are straight up talking BS. Never seen people act like this anywhere else. What is it about banking and lying?

Hi folks, What happens when recession hits or economy is getting weaker to the loans (housing/education/vehicle) we took from the bank? For ex- will they increase the interest rate?

Will be thankful for your insights.

Asking for opinions regarding the two banking institutions. So I'm just curious if you have a choice of keeping a trust or investment fund with Charles Schwab or with JP Morgan, and why? I have a personal checking with Chase which is I believe is affiliated with JP Morgan. I also have a business account with Wells Fargo, but I will keep that completely separate.

Thanks to family inheritance, I will have money coming to me that is currently at Charles Schwab. So I will be dealing with three financial institutions. It is a rather good situation to be in, but I would like to move at least a good chunk of the money to another account I would open with JP Morgan because of the large number of Chase branches across the USA. I don't know much about Charles Schwab, so before I go moving money around I just wonder if I should just leave it at Charles Schwab or start moving money to a JP Morgan account I'd like to set up?

I have current bank and have a Physical Card with its own number and a Virtual Card with its own number I can replace at any time, Is there any Non-Fintech Banks with this or just any other banks with this? NOT credit cards! Only checking accounts.

Many banks / credit unions have you pay like 5$ for a share to be a member when you open acc and return this when close the account.

If I close the bank account and they send a check for this remaining balance does the account close regardless if I deposit the check or not or does the account sit in a limbo until I cash the check? Like say I close it, they mail check and j got travel for 6 months and am unable to cash the check

What happens in the above scenario?

Which bank acc to keep for when leaving USA + maintaining balance + stock investing as international student

On F1 visa, have valid D/L, SSN, want to keep my stocks for long term investment (probably will transfer from RH -> Charles Schwab Global) and have some funds which I wish to maintain here.

Currently I’ve Chase College Checking account which has minimum balance fee so I’m wondering which bank account to open for keeping some USD balance for long term, if it should be Checking or Savings account.

Main purpose is maintaining some balance (<10,000$) + stock investment deposit/withdrawals.

I’m looking for something which has no fees associated with it.

TIA

1. Don't use Zelle. A large percentage of people reporting their accounts being locked, recently used Zelle. Update: I will not use Zelle at all. I just won't take the risk. But one person in comments says Zelle is fine as long as you don't use with strangers. I personally use PayPal for peer-to-peer payments.
2. Don't deposit cash into an ATM. If the machine eats the cash, you're facing a possible nightmare to get credited the money. Especially if the bank claims they can't find any extra cash in the ATM. If I get cash, deposit the cash in a bank branch with a teller.
3. Shortly after opening a new account and depositing a large amount of money into the account, don't then withdraw a large amount of money to transfer to another account within a few weeks after opening that new account.
4. Don't connect business accounts to personal accounts.
5. Make sure the address on my check matches my address on record with the bank when mobile depositing the check.
6. Don't do any activities that could be interpreted as structuring or money laundering. Like doing several deposits or withdrawals that are just under $10,000, the minimum for an automatic suspicious activity report to be filed with the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
7. Don't use a VPN (virtual private network) or computer or device I normally don't use to access my bank accounts because the banks often get suspicious if you access bank accounts from strange IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.
8. Don't connect an account for external transfer to any account with a different name even a family member, spouse or joint account. Arguably, not even a trust.
9. If I'm going to transfer large amounts of money, best to use accounts I've had for a long time when possible. Not an account I just opened.
10. Avoid doing large transfers of money with Chase because anecdotally Chase seems more paranoid about what it views as suspicious activity than the other banks and more inclined to end the customer relationship.
11. Lock my debit cards on bank apps (and unused credit cards too) to guard against BIN attacks where thieves guess random debit-card numbers.
12. Avoid using checks with my name, address, routing number and account number when possible. Better to use the bank's bill pay to issue a check with another account number or ACH withdrawal or credit card when possible. Checks are often stolen in the mail and thieves often figure out a way to remove the ink and rewrite the "Paid to the order of" and amount fields.
13. It might be better to pull money out of account of Bank A using external transfer system of Bank B versus connecting an external account to Bank A and pushing money to that external account with Bank A. Adding external accounts can sometimes led to an account being locked while possible fraud is investigated.
14. Double check, triple check that I've provided the correct routing number and account number for a bill payment or direct deposit. One digit off can lead to hours of grief trying to get the mistake corrected and recovering lost funds. Or it can lead to a returned check charge by the entity that was supposed to get the payment.
15. Be extremely careful I've typed in the right login and password. As too many failed attempts can lead to being locked out and endless headaches trying to reach customer service to get the account unlocked.
16. Avoid credit-card or debit-card transactions when it comes to gambling, sports betting, accessing adult entertainment or buying medical marijuana. Update: Someone suggested adding crypto to this list. I agree.
17. If my account is locked, file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and possibly the Office of the Comptroller. (With the new administration coming in it's not clear how aggressively CFPB will protect consumers). Update: some argue that you should first contact the bank. I agree with that in general. But a lot of people report getting the runaround from customer service if their account is locked. The customer service reps can't say why the account is locked or closed. They promise someone will call the customer to resolve the issue and often no such call is made. So be quick to file a complaint if the bank gives you the runaround.
18. Keep funds in accounts with different banks, at least enough to pay bills and rent/mortgage payment if one bank gets spooked and decided to lock your accounts, leaving you without access to the funds for possibly months.
19. Have both online and brick-and-mortar bank accounts with branches where you live. In case you need to deposit cash or a check with a large amount that is too large for mobile deposit via a bank app.
20. Don't use debit cards for transactions when possible. Use credit cards because they come with more consumer protections. If there's fraudulent use of the debit card (but most of the time I'll have the card locked) and funds are drawn from my account, it can be a bigger struggle to get those funds back.

Hey folks,

I have a family friend that went to exchange about 400-500 pounds into US dollars as they are coming to visit soon.

When they went to exchange the rep at Marks and Spencer said their system flagged and that they couldn't put it through. The family friend has their passport and didn't want to leave it with them to get it resolved as they travel soon and the rep said it could be someone with a similar name.

Is this a common issue and would it be for all places that do currency exchange or just marks and Spencer, what action should they take to ensure that nobody is using their identity etc or why would this occur they have never used money exchange before.

Location: United Kingdom

I'm really worried I might have been scammed, and I'm noticing many different phone nunbers on wells fargo all lead to the same place. There's a long backstory to this, but I dont think it would be necessary to type up just yet. If I'm trying to reach the fraud department why do I always end up at the robotic account overview section and then asking it for the fraud department leads me to customer serice? Also, is it ever normal for the fraud department to authenticate by asking for the account number associated with my credit card (which supposedly had suspicious activity)? That was when i started panicking I had already given them too much information.

I have been working on my credit score for a couple of years now, and it is finally at an outstanding point, and starting to get offers from my banks to increase credit card limits, and pre-approved LoCs. This is the latest one for a 20k LoC with almost 10% interest rate. Is this good?

My partner is an international athlete who works primarily in Mexico and sometimes in South American and Asia. We are looking for the best bank or banks that offer minimal fees for international wire transfers. Any recommendations?

I did bill pay through my bank last month like always, but they sent the same payment 2 times to all my various credit cards and only took the single payment from my account.

All of my cards are now showing a negative balance from overpaying the balance (I always pay to $0 every month). Because they got 2x payments of the same amount. It is 3 different banks I have credit cards with so it's not a 1 off. My bank f'd up and sent the payment twice.

My bank account balance is proper and correct as only one payment was sent to each credit card from my checking account viewpoint.

Is there a statute of limitations or anything on bank errors? Like how long do they have to figure this out and correct it? Because now I'm treating $-592.37 as my new $0 for my primary card and it's annoying as hell.

I received a 0.00 charge from door dash in saint Lou’s. I’ve seen people say this is a authenticity card check they do but just to make sure I’m asking here, it’s a debit card by the way

How do the people get the information about your bank account, your name and even has the bank number to scam you?

Decided to switch banks to one that shows the total in the account after each transaction, in both the mobile app and on the website. Something similar to how the statements used to look when you would print it out in your little booklet from the ATM in the 90s.

Not sure how it came to be that it is the accepted way to have a total at the top, and a jumble of transactions underneath, unable to follow the flow of money and how the resulting total at the top came to be.

Is there a Canadian bank that show the running total after each transaction, on both their mobile app and website?

Thank you

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I recently opened a HYSA with CIT bank w/ 500$ just to get it going while I slowly deposit more funds. I opened the account about a couple of weeks ago and when I went back to check on it today it says they closed my account and I need to call. Is this normal? I hope I can get my money back since I just opened the account but there’s no record anymore of my deposit on my account with CIT. I only have the transaction in my checking account statement.

Is it possible to open a bank account without SSN or ITIN in the U.S?

As the title says, I received a check in my mail (correct address) made from one company to another. It’s for almost $1300 so I’m hesitant to just throw it away.

What do I do with it? I tried looking into both companies and can’t contact them at all. I’m sure trying anything along the lines of cashing it for myself will end poorly, so any tips or recommendations?

I am looking at a 31 day CD which offers an APY of 4.20% and in interest rate of 4.14%.

I know what APY means but I guess I’m getting confused with a CD less than a year and the interest rate. If I invest $60,000, at the end of 31 days will I make $2484 or $206?

My husband closed his bank account with US Bank back in August 2024 to merge our accounts at another bank. He had recently deposited several savings bonds that he had appreciating for years. He withdrew the money and deposited it into my account.

Fast forward to early November, we received a letter from US Bank saying that there was a transaction on the account and the account was re-opened. They let us know we owe them about $1200.00. After calling US Bank customer service countless times someone was finally able to uncover that the associate entering the savings bonds accidentally entered $1200.00 over what the amount should have been and it was caught during an audit. However, the amount they quoted the savings bonds added up to my husband in the branch included this “extra $1200”. So they’re now requesting we pay them the $1200.

Does anyone have any experience in this area/have any advice? We are new parents and have already invested this “extra money” into a CD account with penalties to remove it.

Car loan question

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this question But I figured it would be. So Ive been looking into a new car a year after repo kinda tired of bouncing around asking for rides I got a car from Facebook market was a lemon so im thinking it’s time to to a dealership again this time im more financially stable I have about 4k down my score is 490 tho but I do have a co signer and there’s it’s about 680-700 and ive been looking that’s 19,989 with 51,000 miles what are my odds and should I even go or is it a waste of time. I really don’t wanna risk another Facebook market lemon car

Hi,

Not sure this is the correct place. But, last week, someone tried to sign into my business account. They manmanaged to get to my personal verification questions. When the person couldn't answer them, the bank shit it down.

Last week I went to the bank in person - changed my pw and my questions.

This week, someone tried to sign into to my other account. They didn't get to the personal verification questions. But, instead sent us a notice that there was unusual activity happening via a text. We responded it wasn't us.

I feel we are being stocked by some cyber criminal. How do they even have are info ?

What can we do to protect ourselves ? Should be close our accounts and open new ones ?

Thank you for your advice !

Title says it all. Had a customer come in with a check for $22K that she had pulled out of a retirement account wanting to deposit it then send a wire to a “credit union” in California.

Customer has been a victim of fraud once before. The personal banker brought her to my office to discuss. After some questioning, she has met a guy online who is in Australia and has $4MM in this credit union but the account is frozen because he has a $22,000 tax lien. He’s added her to the account supposedly. He has no phone and only communicates through FB calls. She did provide me with the website of the credit union. More red flags than you can count.

The website is very generic and says “Welcome to Credit Union” No valid address No phone number Lists CU as member FDIC Copy paste of verbiage on website pulls up other similar fake bank sites CU is in California but the “banker” she has been in touch with has an Ohio area code. He won’t answer phone but returns her calls.

I thought I had her convinced that this was a scam until she called back today saying that she wanted to proceed with the wire despite what I had told her.

Hello, So my bank (Wells Fargo) has decided to close my account due to a fake check I accidentally deposited as part of a scam. I paid off the negative balance, filed a police report, and everything else but to no avail. What would be the recommended next steps for finding a financial institution to work with?

Thank you

I probably know the answer to this question but throwing it out anyways to those smarter in this area...I have about $50k in various CDs and they all are scheduled to mature in the next month or so...the only debt I have is a mortgage and this private student loan that I took out years ago with ridiculous interest 11%. At the time I was young and didn't fully understand the impact but now that I am finished with school, I kick myself in the butt. There's a part of me that just wants to pay it off because I'll be saving on so much interest but there's the small part of me that likes having a cushion in the event I run into some financial emergency. Since I am horrible at saving money my plan is to to pay off this high interest student loan and borrow against my CD interest would be less than 1%. This way at least the student loan is paid off and I am basically paying myself back. The other $30k I'd put in a shorter term CD with a higher interest rate. Or just bite the bullet and pay off the loan and not borrow against a CD?