Comments by "Sean" (@sean2015) on "Trio accused of stealing identities of Surfside condo collapse victims for financial gain" video.

@KerenszH I worked for a credit card company for three years. SSN and date of birth is not considered "basic information". If a person calls into the bank and is able to immediately and accurately verify these pieces of information then why should the bank have any reason to suspect that the caller isn't who they say they are? If the person handling the call becomes suspicious then yes they can transfer the caller to another specialist who can ask more detailed questions (e.g. "What is your father's middle name?" or "What was the make and model of your last car?" ) but again when you're handling hundreds of calls a day there's usually nothing about a particular call that would raise any flags. Some fraudsters are pretty slick and can answer many questions about a particular person. ALSO!!! Some customers dislike the verification process and become snippy or angry with us when we have to ask a lot of questions for their own protection.
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@KerenszH "is their fault"..."repetitous Lee" ?? I don't believe you that you work for a bank with the way you write and spell. Banks cannot possibly prevent every single instance of fraud. One large bank may have 60 million credit and debit cards to handle. With a staff of...what...500 or so fraud prevention specialists ? Many people are dumb and it can be easy for a criminal to obtain sensitive personal information. I've seen it happen all the time. There is also elder abuse and identity theft by caregivers, nurse's aides and even grandchildren who have access to all kinds of information about their elderly relative or patient.
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@KerenszH well yes the banks will likely be liable but that's not because it's "their fault", it's because of federal law. Regulation C limits a cardholder's/accountholder's liability on fraud to $50 per occurrence (I believe the relevant legislation is the Electronic Funds Transfer Act or the Truth in Lending Act....there are so many laws governing banking that it's hard to keep track). Defrauding is different from scamming. A bank would not be liable if, for example, an account holder wires money to Nigeria as part of an advance fee scheme.
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@shellyveley9515 you say "when the cards were canceled", but the criminals didn't 'steal' the deceased victims' actual cards. They opened up new accounts using the deceased people's identities. Getting information such as the victims' names and address is easy, and the date of birth can be obtained through an obituary or death notice. As far as how they got the SSNs, I'm not sure - there are various ways (phishing, social engineering, etc.,) But once an identity thief has those three pieces of information, they can use it to open a new account (note: at 0:15 the anchorman says the suspects used "debit" cards but this is not accurate. Debit cards are linked to a checking account, the thieves used credit cards.
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The banks do ask security questions. The fraudsters get a hold of the victims’ SSN and birth date so they can pass verification.
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@KerenszH I see. And you mentioned you work for a bank but you did not say in which department (?)
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@KerenszH which department of the bank do you work?
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@KerenszH when you use voice recognition programs there are always going to be some spelling mistakes in your message(s), so you should be prepared to proofread then and make manual edits if necessary.
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@KerenszH omg…really? 🤔
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@sandyrose2398 how about people start being a little more careful with their personal information and stop blaming banks for every little problem in their lives? For instance when I worked for a bank I even saw cases where people had money stolen from them because they had written their PIN on their debit cards (...like how stupid can one be?) Consumers have many resources available to help protect against fraud and identity theft. If you as a consumer believe your personal information may have been compromised or even if you just want to be a little extra cautious, you always have the option to set a 'fraud alert' on your name - the bank cannot do that for you . They last for seven years and it is free of charge to do this. If you do this then a bank will contact you and take extra precautions to verify you anytime a new account is opened under your name and SSN. Banks do ask plenty of security questions, the problem is there are a lot of Karens and Chads who get pissed at having to answer them. The banks have to protect against fraud but they also have to be careful about not making their customers jump through too many hoops and loops in order to use their cards and accounts, otherwise the banks will lose business.
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@elleivers9387 even if someone steals your identity you can still protect yourself by setting a fraud alert (it’s free and lasts for seven years) which you can do through any one of the three credit reporting agencies. In my experience working for a bank I found that many instances of identify theft were caused by people not being careful, or just being downright stupid.
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@beezer bobum kiss my Irish …
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