Need advice for a friend...theft in two forms

[IcyCool7227]

I got an email from a new friend I made at college. She wanted some advice and gave me permission to post this here. It seems like such a bad situation to happen but any advice on what to do besides call the police and banks?

For the police (*edited out); Affinity Federal Credit Union, Amazon, G-mail, Mana by MVB Bank, MetaBank, ONE Finance, Primis & Upgrade by Cross River Bank:

I am writing this as my own report of what had happened in the last week. Somebody came to my house while I was gone at least twice or more and stole my identity as well as a package right off my doorstep on the third time but am unsure if the package theft was related or not. My house was unlocked so anybody could have gotten in. Somebody got in, opened up my Chrome browser on my laptop that was downstairs and accessed my Gmail e-mail account as it opens up as a saved tab automatically (you don’t even need a password to login but I have changed this to 2 factor authentication). The first time was Friday, April 7th at night when I was trying to sleep (around 9:45 – 10ish pm CST). I think somebody had been watching the house waiting for the lights to go off. I did hear some footsteps downstairs and a door open and close but thought it was my roommate so I didn’t think anything of it. I came to this conclusion today (April 15th) because of the deleted emails I found from my Affinity Federal Credit Union account with automated emails of external accounts being set up in my name that I didn’t authorize that day. The accounts were in my name but I did not add them myself. I did get a phone call from Affinity Federal Credit Union last Monday, April 14 that they noticed some unusual activity on my account from MetaBank over the weekend but I thought this was activity from new transfers I had set up recently with existing MetaBank accounts already linked. So today at about 9:12 pm I logged into my Affinity FCU account and found 2 MetaBank bank accounts were added April 7th along with 3 other accounts from Primis Bank and Lineage Bank. I changed my password and right after that, I then called Affinity Federal CU to report this but they were closed. I had a list of account passwords that were on a piece of paper that I thought had been left in a drawer and some United Healthcare medical records mail along with some W2s that had my personal info that had been pushed around. Sometimes my roommate *edited out sits at the desk temporarily to use the phone so not sure if it was him that moved the stuff but I don’t think he would have stolen my identity or the package because I know him well enough.

The second time was last Monday, April 10th, 2023 sometime in the evening. Around 7 pm CST I had gone on a long hour or so walk. My doctor wanted me to go for longer walks because I had not been getting enough exercise lately and I do not have a bike. I was back around 8:15ish and then rested for a few hours, tired from that and went to bed early. It was either last Friday or last Monday that somebody logged into my accounts to add 4 of them to my ONE account and verify the deposits. I know from the deleted gmail email history last Monday somebody had sent One Finance two fake bank statements to complete the verification process as e-mail prompts asking for that show up right after you verify the deposits. Even though the sent emails were deleted to One Finance with the two fake statements it showed up in the Trash section of Gmail that I found today along with email replies with a ONE support staff agent named *edited out. Unfortunately, the accounts were approved to be linked as there were two replies to the bank statements in the trash sent Tuesday, April 11th at 3:46 pm and 3:53 pm which means the thief was either at the house during that time or was logging in with my gmail account on his device. It could be why he was also at my house multiple times as he was trying to hide his IP or didn't have enough time to do everything.

When I downloaded the statements they appeared to be made with a PDF editor program that was modified to make it look like it was real in order to try to extradite money from them. Which one of them was a new account called Mana partnered with MVB Bank that didn’t even have any statements available yet and the statement didn’t include a letter head. Looking closer it appears that it was tweaked from one of my Meta Bank accounts as the thief altered the dates and took out the letterhead. The other was called Upgrade partnered with Cross River Bank and the date was tweaked so that it looked like it was a full 30 day statement. There is no way I would have uploaded anything myself either because from past experience with linking accounts to ONE, you have to wait for a minimum of 30 days for an account to be open to link the first statement for manual connections which both accounts didn’t have as they were pretty new.

The third time, yesterday (Fri., April 14th, 2023) I was at the library 1:30 pm CST and two stores. I did not get home until about 3:45 pm yesterday. A package was stolen off my doorstep. I know the package from Amazon was stolen because I found out when I went onto my Amazon account to check the status of the item I had ordered which were blue shoe covers (worth about $26). There is a photo of the package being on the doorstep that got delivered about 5:24 pm CST. I was upstairs laying down and relaxing so it could have been taken then. It doesn’t appear that anyone came in the house but I don’t know. I also wasn’t home yesterday most of the day from 10:40 am to about 7:15 pm because of work so I am not sure if somebody came in again while I was gone but nothing seemed out of place.

Earlier yesterday, I received an email from One Finance saying that some unusual activity had been reported so I called to see what it was about. I don’t remember who answered the call but they could not determine what had happened but would email me later. There was an email from a Bryan Ramirez stating that my One account had been identified for closure due to activity inconsistent with the obligations set forth in the account opening agreements. I do not know anymore details about that but I believe the recent activity that happened on my ONE and other accounts was most definitely the cause.

I believe this was either a random person off the street (at least for the stolen package) or a coworker (think it could have been either 4 people's names edited out at my current job at edited out or 3 others edited out at my former edited out job who didn't like me and searched online for my home address....it was in the offices too). I was talking a lot about banking and my accounts in general recently because I was trying to become a teller and happened to mention some of the banks I had or were planning to open. I am actively now searching for home security systems from ADT to prevent this from happening in the future.

For Affinity Federal Credit Union, Mana by MVB Bank, MetaBank, ONE Finance, Primis & & Upgrade by Cross River Bank reading this report, I think since my account numbers and passwords were written down on a piece of paper that the thief had access to, I would like to request that the accounts be closed and new ones be opened in order to change the account numbers as well as the cards. I have since changed all the passwords to all accounts on that list and properly shredded it. I no longer will keep such sensitive data written down! I am also placing a temporary credit freeze on all 3 credit bureaus. On March 18th this year someone tried charging $804.81 to my Amazon Prime Store credit card which I reported to both Amazon and Synchrony and been refunded (not sure if it is related to this though). I also had identity theft happen last year on April 25 where from my Chexsystems report shows that a person tried taking out 2 loans and an Apple credit card that got denied in which a police report was filed too (not sure if that was related to this though either). Had ONE Finance not restricted the activity who knows what else this person might have tried to do!

[WildestDreams]

Someone accessed accouts by going into your friends home/on their computer??!?! sounds targeted, I have no other advice beyond getting the police involved however your friend needs to contact all of the involved banks/creditors maybe close all checking/savings related accounts and start fresh at a new bank (thats what i have done in the past) AND then freeze/lock TU EQ and EX ASAP so no additional accounts can be open

[Jnbmom]

Your friend has "roommates" I would start there .

[ZackAttack]

This is a nightmare and alarming.

1. Why wouldn't you lock your house while you were away? Just keeping the house unlocked while away just invites people trying to attempt to walk in. Be a great defense for the defendant to "claim" the house is unlocked.

2. If someone is in the house with her, why didn't she secretly check to know who was in the house or call police for a suspected introducer? 

3. Why are the computer stuff (phone, labtops, desktops, etc) do not have a password? Without a password keeping it protected just shows how someone can frame you for doing stuff plus it is no fun trying to sort through the courts, lawyers, accountants, etc. just trying to fix the damage.    Also if that stuff just lying about, aren't you worried that someone can send that off to a scammer just to attempt an ACH/Wire to get that money??????

4. Why would you have your passwords for multiple accounts written down on a piece of paper? That just invites a whole set of problems that she is asking for.

After reading this, I would be worried since you can very well damage your identity for LIFE. She probably needs to speak with a lawyer about all of this as it will haunt her for the rest of her life.

As others said, FREEZE all bureaus -> great way for non-potential credit to be approved without knowing.

- At this point, since someone could be using your identity, you probably need to send an alert to the bureau for identity theft as well. -> Side Note: idk if you have gov't ID cards, but if they saw those then that probably means a trip to the Secretary of State to report it on your record as well.

[FireMedic1]

All this breaking and entering to get on a laptop sounds like an internal roomate deal. Police Dept. Freeze reports. Call banks. And. Lock the doors. If it happens again with locked doors. Guess who?

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Jnbmom wrote:

Your friend has "roommates" I would start there .

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Indeed, and she probably knows it, hence the request for help other than calling the police. Any claim of fraud with a lender or the bureaus will require a police report for identity theft to fix. Or, she knows who did it, like a friend or family member. All the wild speculating reeks of trying to cover it up so they won't get in trouble. 

[longtimelurker]

I almost don't believe it, but that's just me!

But the first thing to do to help it to make the email much more concise (unless it's too late)   Details like "blue shoe covers" can be given if asked but makes the whole thing rambling.   

The police are just going to be interested in the times of the intrusions and brief evidence that she has for it.   At this stage I probably wouldn't volunteer that the door was unlocked, don't lie if asked but.....

The FIs will just want to know about their accounts, not what happened to everyone else.

There may be no way around it, but computer without password, list of passwords easily accessible and doors unlocked could be used to show lack of due care certainly on any existing account.  Fixing now is good, but horse/barn door come to mind.

[IcyCool7227]

My friend wants her One account back as a new account opened with new numbers since they were compromised. They think that she violated their terms in some way according to that email however it wasn't her doing it - it was someone else. Would the police report help in that matter? What can she do other than inform One of this?

[longtimelurker]

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@IcyCool7227 wrote:

My friend wants her One account back as a new account opened with new numbers since they were compromised. They think that she violated their terms in some way according to that email however it wasn't her doing it - it was someone else. Would the police report help in that matter? What can she do other than inform One of this?

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They could certainly argue that she hasn't sufficiently protected the account (with passwords written down etc), but if these were in her house, it's not nearly as obvious as, e.g. writing your PIN on your debit card.   What does the police report say, do they agree that a non-resident broke in/came in uninited?

[rosco75]

the very fact that your "friend" is hesitant to open a police report and is somehow asking if that will help retain an account just screams fraud to me. You should ALWAYS open a report when id theft is concerned. Always.