[KathieI]

This is not a credit card horror (as yet, I hope) but more of a checking account fraud issue:

When I was returning home from TV in November, I lost my drivers license in one of the airports showing it to security I guess. I immediately replaced it but the night before I was leaving for TV in February, the most unbelievable thing happened.

I received a phone call around 6pm at night from a the manager of a branch of my bank, not near my house, telling me that a person with my name and identification (drivers license) was in the bank trying to cash a check for $1500 but thankfully the teller became suspicious and went for managements approval.

They in turn called me and how could I be at the bank when I was home?? They immediately put a "stop" on my account so that no more money could be withdrawn and reversed the withdrawal from my account and they recommended that I go to the nearest branch the next morning to open a new account. Well, the next morning at 7am, I'm on a flight to Orlando. So the manager said she would put out an alert to all the branches in L.A. to alert anyone trying to withdraw money from my account, using my forged license Needless to say, I was very concerned as I needed money for my trip. So everyday while in TV I monitored the account on line to make sure nothing strange was happening.

Of course, I thanked the branch manager for being so diligent and protecting my account and that I was glad to be doing business with such a reliable organization. It is amazing to me how these people can go to extremes to forge a drivers license, putting their picture in place of mine but having all the same information on it. If she hadn't misspelled my name on the check, she never would have been caught.

This is a very frightening time we live in!!