Day Care Identity Theft

Identity theft can happen to anyone. We try to give our readers and social media followers tips to stay safe. But sometimes criminals still get the best of us. When this daycare owner had her identity stolen, she did all the right things, but her bank just wouldn’t budge.

Wasted Time is Wasted Money

Jacquelyn Williams-Hood owns three daycares. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for dilly-dallying. So when she realized that $3,200 had been taken from her account, she wasted no time. Apparently, someone had hacked her bank account and removed $3,200 through an online application called Cash App. She immediately contacted her bank before the funds were transferred to alert them to the fraudulent withdrawal. But the bank told her she had to contact Cash App first.

Jacquelyn attempted to contact Cash App, but as a purely online app, there was no way to contact them by phone. So she did the next best thing and emailed them. It took Cash App twenty-four hours to respond. By then, the funds had already been transferred. So Jacquelyn went back to the bank and told them what had happened. But the bank wouldn’t budge. In the time they had forced her to talk to Cash App, the funds had been transferred, and the bank refused to refund the stolen cash.

Things Get Worse

To make matters worse, it turns out the identity thief hadn’t just hacked her bank account. They had also gotten into her other online accounts, such as Amazon, eBay, and Macy’s. As soon as she found out, she alerted those companies, and all three put an immediate hold on her account.

She went back to the bank with the new evidence of fraud, but they still refused to refund her $3,200. She provided them more and more documentation, even including a police report. Still, the bank wouldn’t do anything. Finally, they told her why. They said that due to her “unusual spending habits,” she could not prove fraudulent activity on her account.

That’s when she contacted TrustDALE.

Dale Gets It Done!

We were just as appalled by Jacquelyn’s bank as she was. Unusual spending habits? Jacquelyn owns three daycares! We can only imagine the wide variety of purchases and expenses that she has to make. So of course she had some unusual spending patterns. But is it really the bank’s job to tell her how she should be spending her money and whether she deserves fraud protection?

The bank had refused to make any accommodation for Jacquelyn’s situation. They wouldn’t return even one penny of her $3,200. So we contacted their public affairs department. We shared all of the documentation that Jacquelyn had already presented to the customer service department. Sure enough, the folks in public affairs did not want to deal with a social media story about this outrageous behavior by the bank. Within twenty-four hours, the bank agreed to return the $3,200 that was stolen.

How We Do It

When you have a problem, sometimes you just need to know who to talk to. When a company has really gone off the rails, they don’t want you to share your story. Marketing departments are terrified of bad publicity. And at TrustDALE, it’s our job to share these stories and warn consumers of businesses behaving badly. So when we contact public affairs departments, many companies are happy to find a solution instead of bearing the brunt of bad publicity.

We are so glad we were able to help Jacquelyn get her money back. And that’s how Dale gets it done!