Subject: [WSFA] Re: Bank dirty tricks
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
From: Ted White <twhite8 at cox.net>
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2016 22:49:16 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On 6/23/2016 10:19 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:

> The plot thickens:  I returned to the bank this morning, hoping that
> they would have straightened everything out.  The person I spoke to
> last time directed me to the branch manager, who hadn't been there
> last time.  I asked him for an update, and he stared at me in blank
> incomprehension.  It turned out he hadn't been filled in.
> Apparently the person I spoke to last time said and did nothing after
> I left.
>
> So I went through the whole thing again, even more annoyed than last
> time.  He checked on his computer.  We talked some more, at cross
> purposes until I realized that he was claiming, not that I had
> agreed years ago to an auto-renewal at a homeopathic interest rate,
> but that I had, just last month, signed up in person for the new CD.
> I asked him three times to make sure that's really what he was
> claiming.
>
> So of course I asked him to show me the contract that "I" had signed
> last month.  He left his office, presumably to search for it, but I
> didn't see where he went or what he did.  After a few minutes he
> returned, then used his computer for what seemed like a long time.
> Finally, he turned the monitor to show me a contract on the screen.
> The contract was undated and unsigned.
>
> I told him that he had failed to show evidence that I had signed it.
> I asked him if the camera footage from last month had been
> preserved, as I wanted to get a good look at "myself."  He refused to
> answer, saying that their security policies were secret.  Neither
> would he tell me on what day "I" had been there.
>
> He said that if it was up to him, he'd reverse the $200 penalty, but
> he doesn't have that power.  I asked him who does have that power. He
> claimed that nobody in the bank does.  He clarified that by "the
> bank," he doesn't just mean that branch, he means the whole thing. He
> claimed that even the bank's president didn't have that power. And
> that neither did anyone have the power to change the interest rate on
> an existing CD.
>
> After further argument, he agreed to have someone from headquarters
> phone me at home.  He wouldn't give me their name or number, or tell
> me when I should expect the call.
>
> This is bizarre.  Am I really supposed to believe that someone is
> impersonating me, and doing so well enough to trick the bank into
> thinking he's me?  How would this person have known what bank I
> have? I've certainly never mentioned it on Usenet or in email, and
> probably not in person.  (I just searched all my saved email and
> newsgroup postings for the past five years for my bank's name, and
> sure enough it's not there.)  Of course anyone I've paid a check to
> would know. But since moving to this bank four years ago I've only
> written checks to utilities and to my landlord/housemate.  I'm sure
> he wouldn't pretend to be me, and that he wouldn't succeed if he did
> pretend, as he looks nothing like me.
>
> More to the point, how would the imposter have known I had a large
> CD maturing?  I'm quite sure *nobody* knew that except within the
> bank. Even I didn't remember.  My landlord/housemate could have found
> out by searching through my papers, but I don't believe he would do
> that, nor do I believe he could do it without leaving traces.
> Especially since my filing system is very non-obvious, so he'd have
> to do a very thorough search of my room to find it.
>
> Also, why would this imposter have put my money in a low-rate CD
> when he could just as easily have simply taken all the money?
>
> And how did this imposter manage to avoid leaving a copy of the
> contract he signed?
>
> It just doesn't pass the smell test.  And I don't understand why the
> bank manager thinks it would.
>
> Maybe it's reverse psychology?  Make up a sufficiently absurd story,
> and I'm supposed to conclude that nobody would make up such an
> absurd story, so it must be true?
>
> Or maybe I'm supposed to believe that it really was me, and that I
> was sleep-banking, presumably while carrying a pen with disappearing
> ink.
>
> Any suggestions?

After all those apparent lies from the bank people, I think it's time
you consulted an attorney and at least threatened legal action.

--Ted White