Posted on 05/08/2006 3:22:29 PM PDT by APRPEH
GREENSBORO -- As executor of his parents' estate, former Greensboro resident Steve Israel had the only checkbook to the Israel Family Partnership Account with the Merrill Lynch office here.
Only he could write checks on the account, which his parents, Archie and Adelaide Israel, of Greensboro, opened in 1998, six years before their deaths in late 2004.
Steve Israel received an e-mail in January from a Greensboro accountant working on the account's taxes. The accountant wondered about a multitude of transactions -- totaling $26,345 -- on the Merrill Lynch account statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at news-record.com ...
Another reason NOT to keep loads of money in a checkwriting account.....
A great example of why everyone should thoroughly check the statements on their bank accounts and credit cards. I balance mine and make sure that I can account for every charge / debit, and every deposit is there. In between statements, I check online to be sure that everything looks on the up-and-up.
I've sold items on Ebay, and don't accept personal checks for payment. I'm always surprised when someone asks if they can send me a personal check anyway. Don't they understand the risk they take whenever they send one of their checks to a complete stranger?
THAT's why I've always laughed at those who thought on-line banking was "risky." (I've been online banking for 16 years). I would ask them about their CHECKS they were writing which has all their info on them.....that they are sending through the mail, (or through a store) to be handled possibly multiple times.
I sell on eBay, and I take checks.
Send me your check, and I'll send you the item, no waiting. Trust has to work both ways.
Seems as if the companies who received those checks and processed them should be considered part of the scam.
I've had two cases recently where checks written by someone else, different account number, different bank name on the check, different signature were charged against my account. Two different bank accounts. Both banks made corrections as soon as this was pointed out. I imagine that I would have had a lot of trouble if they were part of a fraud where the checks looked as if they were mine.
I guess it depends on who your financial muckety-muck is.
We’ve used an outfit that is affiliated with Merrill Lynch for about a decade and have been VERY happy with their performance and prompt communication with us.
They earned me plenty of money back when our other clown at AMEX (Ameriprise, whatever it is) was sucking wind. I could have bought the index and outperformed them.
A couple of things:
First it sort of sounds like $20,000 is a relatively insignificant amount seeing as how it took him months (or up to 1 year+) to notice fraudulent activity.
I’m lazy but take the time to skim over monthly statements.
Second is that (at least in my case) Merrill has a website where you can see balances and activity of EVERYTHING in one pop.
EVERYTHING – checking, savings, transfer accounts, CC activity, investments (through them), investments (through others that are associated with your portfolio), annuities, payments made to utilities, payments (CC or debit) made to grocery or other shopping, mortgage, investment income – on and on.
Takes 15 seconds to pop on and view it a few times/week. That way you don’t come up months later wondering where $20,000 went.
Another thing is that most accounts are pretty rigidly set up. We have one account that has $X paid out of it every month. Never changes. Should it suddenly come up with an +/-$X charge, Merrill won’t pay until they figure out what the problem is because they know what the account is for and how much is supposed to be paid out from it (also know how much is supposed to be pumped into it on the 29th , etc).
Similarly, I have my “play money” account that they maintain at a certain $ level and I tap it freely for travel and toys. That’s the one I peek at most frequently because the others are pretty straightforward.
Incidentally, I’ve found “shitigroup” to be among the best (when I last used them) as far as CC services went.
Their security outfit contacted me promptly when they suspected CC fraud (they were correct). They sent the proper forms to be filled out and notarized and promptly credited the account. Actually, I don’t think they ever charged it – I think they “held” the charge until I informed them I did NOT purchase $8,000 of computer parts to be shipped to eastern Europe.
The other time they contacted me was after I had washed/vacuumed all our vehicles one weekend and had taken them down to the gas station to top them off. Evidently they’re looking for a flurry of small charges within a few minutes of each other as part of their fraud protection deal.
I haven’t had any problems with either. Go figure.
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