I had been looking for a job and found one on craigslist for a pca. I applied and was hired. The story that they gave me was that the woman had a stroke and was staying with her daughter in New York while she recovered. We wrote back and forth for about a month. There were some things that were off and some unanswered questions. This is not unusual while dealing with people in this field so I just proceeded. She was going to need me to get a list of supplies one of them was a wheel chair , towels, food and some linens. The wheel chair I had to send for I thought that it was strange but whatever I thought I was getting paid for it.
I received the check and opened a bank account. Telling my bank teller that it was a new employer and I wanted to wait for the check to clear before proceeding with the instructions so the next week it cleared. I had been calling everyday waiting for everything to clear. When the teller said that the check cleared I proceeded with the instructions. Which was to withdraw the whole amount of the check, send off the money for the wheel chair through western union to this person in co? Well come to find out I started getting calls by the end of the month that my checks were bouncing. Only I had submitted my financial aid check into my account about three thousand dollars so there should have been no problems. Well turns out that the check really didn’t clear. It bounced. So then the bank emptied my account, took my financial aid and let my checks bounce. After talking to the police who told me that they wouldn’t do anything unless it was over $30,000. Same with the FBI. Both of whom couldn’t believe that the bank would take my money and couldn't fathom how they could tell me a check could clear and then take all my money. I talked to the DA and she told me that there was nothing that she could do. Though she did call the bank and let them know what had happened and told them that they needed to educated their tellers. I called and talked to the manager of the bank and let them know what happened.
So meanwhile every time I check my mail I see when this person is online. Using the same name. I even tried to contact them after all of this to see if they would have some pity on me and send me my money back. I tried several different ways to no avail. He did say that he would recruit me and teach me how to do what he did saying he pulls in about $2,500 a week. Quite honestly this has devastated my life. I couldn’t imagine myself inflicting this much pain on anyone else.
I started talking to the collections department in the bank. Because there is like $1,400 that hasn’t been paid for. Mostly because I have been out of work. I thought that the communication was working for me and that this person Chelsea and I were trying to work through this. I wanted to know if they had insurance to cover this kind of theft. I wanted to know if they could get my name of the Chex system and I thought maybe we could arrange some sort of settlement where they could ‘loan’ me the money for this settlement and I would pay them back . The whole thing about the Chex system is that my name is in a data bank now stating that I have an unsettled checking account. I cannot get a checking account anywhere. I have been working these awful jobs through a temp agency at a factory making $8 an hour. It cost me $6.00 to cash a check now. If that is not hard enough in this economy this bank who serviced me for six years is now taking me to court. I never did get an answer to my questions to Chelsea.
My take on being summonsed to court is that I will get to go and tell my story to a judge. I believe that the bank should take some responsibility because they broke a contract that they had with me. I trusted in them to tell me the truth and to be honest. They won't go after the person who stole the money it is easier for them to go after me. I asked a question. "did the check clear?" that is when they should have told me that really it takes a month to clear, or whatever they told me after the fact. Instead they handed me my money and I assumed the transaction was done. Only it wasn't because then they took money from my other account without notifying me and my checks started bouncing. So now I owe more money. Not only that is this money is money that I borrowed from the government to go to school making this year one of the most difficult years of my life. I am a single mom of three kids with no child support.
contacted the federal trade commission and attorney general
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