K
KLEINWOOD
K leinwood Krier Official Publication of the Kleinwood Homeowners Association
June 2013
Volume 3, Issue 6
Shared by one of our neighbors… On Monday April 29, 2013 we placed 5 envelopes with 5 checks to pay some bills in our mail box and raised the flag. On Tuesday April 30, 2013 we received a telephone call from an alert Chase Bank associate in Bellaire that a female was in her bank trying to cash a check from our account for $925.00. The associate reported that the signature on the check was suspect and looked as though it was maybe “traced”. While on the phone we quickly looked in our check register and determined that the check carried a number that we had not yet used. The Chase branch declined the check and the person was reported to have said she would just take it to her own bank and deposit it. The Chase associate told us they recognized the person and she had previously attempted similar actions with (apparently fraudulent) checks from other individuals. We promptly went to our local Chase Bank and spoke with an officer. Our old account was immediately closed and a new account number assigned. The 5 outstanding checks were listed as okay to accept by the bank. Within the next few days we contacted all the payees on the five checks and determined that one week later none had received the payments that we thought we mailed. On the 8th day, today, we concluded from the evidence that the checks were stolen from our mail box and quickly copied and/or “washed” by someone for the purpose of cleaning out our bank account. We stopped payment on the 5 checks and resubmitted the payments from the new checking account Copyright © 2013 Peel, Inc.
or by other methods. Meanwhile we went through the process of assigning our new account number to various entities so online payments could continue to be processed automatically and funds received from income sources. What a time consuming pain. Due to the quick thinking of the Chase associates, who stated that they consider this activity somewhat “routine”, we suffered only the major inconvenience of “redoing” our basic home financial structure. To the best of our knowledge no funds were fraudulently obtained by the crook(s). Our purpose of writing this report is to reinforce the specific precautionary information previously disseminated by our neighbor Bernie Bryl. We would also request of our Kleinwood HOA and Management Company regular “News”, maybe on the website or in the Krier, of known current illegal activities within our community. We appreciated the proactive articles the Deputy Constable used to write as well. Maybe keep the Neighborhood Safety Suggestions updated and near the top of the News list. All of this type of information helps keep us reminded to remain vigilant and aware of our surroundings. Since the Chase Fraud Department is involved we don’t know if a formal report to the Post Office or Constable is appropriate but we’re sending copies of this transmittal to both.
The Kleinwood Krier - June 2013
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