Los Angeles

[SeekingInfo]

Was hoping someone could let me know if this sounds like an inside job?  We recently wired our down payment on the house we are closing on and a few days after, a woman went into the bank I bank at (different state) and withdrew close to $10K from different accounts.  She had a license saying she was me (she was not, bank does not keep license photos on file, so they don't know) and she (or someone working with her) went to two different banks within a half hour of each other before closing.  I've obviously closed those accounts, filed fraud, filed a police report, etc.  The woman told the teller that she recently had a wire transfer and she was buying a house.  All the info she had (my name/social/address/picture of license, etc) were in that escrow paperwork.  I called escrow to let them know, our lender - everyone.  My question is, has anyone ever heard of this and if so, do you think it's an inside job from the wire transfer or what?

Thanks for any help.

[Bruin99]

Does it sound like an inside job?  Yes.  Is it?  Who knows.

Many years ago, my wife had a savings account at a bank that she rarely used.  There were no changing circumstances like in your case where you were buying a home, no specific reason that it would be on somebody's radar, it was simply a savings account.  One day, someone walked in pretending to be her, and withdrew $3k from her savings account.

Needless to say fraud reports were filed and she got her money back - I don't remember it being a difficult process.  I say this only to point out, you could be a random victim of chance, or it is possible that someone who had access to your information via the escrow company, bank, and or any of the companies they contract with or deal with somehow got your information and misused it.  It seems like the latter, but who knows.

[buyinghouse]

  Banks have cameras. Sooner or later they will catch her up. Then you will find out who did it. Patience......