Most of us have bank accounts, such as a checking, saving, money market accounts, etc. When most of us have something to deposit, such as a check or cash you might want to make sure that the deposit is going into the right account.
In addition, when you make a withdrawal you might want to make sure that you are getting the correct amount of money that you requested.
Most of you reading this article are probably saying, of course we know that.
However, do you know that lately tellers and managers at some big banks have actually stolen from their own members.
Awhile ago I went to deposit money into my account, so I went inside the branch, gave my deposit slip to the teller along with the funds to deposit. We made small talk and after she was done I went on my way. It was about a half hour to an hour after I left the bank when I got a crazy impulse to look at my deposit receipt. Having a crazy feeling that something was not right with it. Luckily, I did not throw my deposit slip away.
Once I pulled it out I looked over the numbers, because the bank I bank at still does not block out their numbers leaving only the last four digits to reference the account, which is a big security risk. Especially in this day and age. Scared that someone off the street would see my account number and try to rob me.
Getting back to my story after i glanced at my deposit slip I noticed that the account number was wrong. It was not my account. I looked it over again and again and realized the teller put my money in someone else's account. How can that be when the numbers were not even close to my account numbers. After I called and complained they rectified the situation, but after I had to explain the situation to a couple people and a manager after they were closed.
For the longest I did not think anything of it until my client last night came in and told me what happened with their account with the same big bank close to their home. He is a retired elderly gentleman collecting social security. He went to the bank to pull out $1,400. He told the teller that he wanted to pull out $1,400, so the teller had the man sign the withdrawal slip and helped him fill out the slip for the gentlemen. The teller gave the guy the $1,400 as requested and the guy went on his way.
A few days later the gentleman looked at his account and seen that it was not $1,400 that was withdrawal from his account, but $1,700. He was furious, he went to the bank to complain. He talked all the managers and went all the way to corporate management and security without any luck. They took him as an old senile man. They all believed the teller and not the old retired man. The retired man was out $300. Also finding out that the teller went on vacation after taking the $300 and the teller still works at the same bank at the same branch. I would say that is smooth clean getaway.
Some of you might be wondering how could he take $300 without the retired man knowing. Well let us review what happened. The teller gave the guy the withdrawal slip to sign, cause he would not be able to withdraw anything if he does not sign it. Once the elderly man gave him back the deposit slip the teller filled the rest out for him, which where the problem started. Many tellers do fill out deposit and withdrawal slips for people, but in this case he filled out the withdrawal slip for $1,700 after it was signed, so the elderly man would not known that the teller wrote down $1,700 instead of $1,400. $300 more than the guy asked for. The guy got his $1,400 with no receipt, and then teller pocketed the extra $300.
This practice actually takes place more often than you might think, especially at this big well known bank. Stealing money from their members is not unusual and can easily be down as I mentioned above.
Other things that some of these tellers, bankers and even management have done is opening accounts, such as credit cards without their members knowledge. Also the most surprising thing to me, was when I found out that some of them, especially the managers and branch managers have stolen money from their own employees/coworkers drawers.
Who can you trust if you cannot even trust your own personally banker, teller, and branch manager. This hurts me to know that those same people that I trusted for many years have actually stolen money from us, and yet their is nothing for us to do about it. Because if a teller can just take $300 from an elderly man and get away with it. It makes me wonder if my money is really safe at the bank?
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