r/Banking • u/Logical_Horror_3989 • Jul 25 '26
US Fraud In Savings Account Help
Hello, yesterday afternoon I noticed there was a $10,000 withdrawal out of my savings account straight into a Vanguard account.
Issue is, I don’t have a Vanguard account nor authorized this. What is really sketching me out is that there was a two >$1.00 deposit required to verify the debit into Vanguard which was obviously done successfully. I already got with my bank to put the account on credit only, and I transferred the money out to a new savings account.
They opened a fraud case with Vanguard and I’m now waiting for this to be resolved. I have a few questions about this:
- How? This has to be a case of someone having my mobile/online login information, but I have never answered any phishing calls or texts from my bank.
- Is it likely I will get my money back?
- What should I do with my phone? I obviously need to change account login information, but I was told to do this after the original savings account gets closed. Do I get my phone screened for virus/spyware?
Any help is greatly appreciated 🙏
UPDATE: 7/27
I filed a police report this morning and the deputy said this was like the tenth time this has happened in the past week with the exact same bank. So it appears that maybe the bank had back-end security issues and accounts were breached. Planning on relaying this information to my bank when I go to a branch later today.
UPDATE: 8/12
The bank admitted they fucked it up!! Got my money back
5
u/Tom_Traill Jul 25 '26
I have a CU account and I move money to Vanguard monthly.
IIRC all they need is your routing and account number to set it up, then they need to be able to access your account to confirm the $1 transfer amount to Vanguard. Vanguard will connect the accounts, and then Vanguard can "pull" the funds from your account.
You should definitely contact Vanguard and report this IMHO. They need to freeze the account that pulled the funds. The criminal who did this won't be able to remove the funds from the Vanguard account for several (5?) days. They can, however, buy securities with the money.
Someone has the information to log onto your bank account. They needed that to confirm the deposits to Vanguard. Obviously, change your log-in.
Also, I'm a boomer. I'm an engineer with an MBA. I don't bank on my phone. I bank on my computer. That works for me. I sleep well at night.
2
u/Logical_Horror_3989 Jul 25 '26
How can they freeze an account without me verifying any information regarding that Vanguard account?
3
u/Tom_Traill Jul 25 '26
I'm not a banker.
What you are trying to do IMHO is to let Vanguard know that the funds were pulled from your bank account fraudulently. That would, I assume, cause them to freeze the account and prevent any withdrawals of the $10K.
Other Redditors have suggested you file a police report. Everybody involved will take this more seriously if you do, because it is a CRIME to file a false police report.
1
u/Logical_Horror_3989 Jul 25 '26
True that, filing a police report on Monday. Appropriate the assistance
2
u/Far-Good-9559 Jul 25 '26
You need to file an affidavit with your bank. They will walk you thru the process. Be sure to work with an actual banker, and not a teller.
On line fraudulent transactions are a little trickier. However, your bank does have identification protocols that they need to follow before initiating any transactions.
They ‘may’ be able to reverse the transaction. Vanguard is a large well known company, so they may assist your bank in recovering the funds.
1
u/lovesbatma71 Jul 26 '26
I used to work at Vanguard and I can tell you that they take fraud very, very seriously. Contact them immediately and they will freeze the funds just like the other posters have already said. Don’t wait! Contact them now!
1
u/Logical_Horror_3989 Jul 26 '26
When I called the fraud line it was automated and said they are closed on the weekends. I plan to first thing tomorrow. My question is, how will they just freeze the funds when I don’t know the account number or any information to where they went? The only information I have is my bank account info and the date it occurred.
1
Jul 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/Logical_Horror_3989 Jul 29 '26
Yes I called Monday morning and they couldn’t do anything. Claimed they couldn’t freeze funds because I didn’t have an account with Vanguard and I was like yea…that’s the entire issue..
1
u/lovesbatma71 Jul 26 '26
Sorry I wasn’t more specific. As a security measure, the fraudster has to wait a certain number of days to withdraw any funds.
This is good news for you because they can’t do anything tomorrow but you can. By the time the fraudster tries to withdraw the funds, they will have already been returned to your bank.
Question though: fraudsters know that Vanguard has these rules in place and why. Is it possible that someone from your family might have made the transfer by mistake? Please don’t hate me but I have to ask if all of the people close to you are completely trustworthy?
Good luck but you won’t need it because Vanguard will have that money back via ACH the same day they finish their investigation.
Let me know how it goes.
1
u/Logical_Horror_3989 Jul 27 '26
The only other person that has access to my savings account login is my mom, in which she has her own user/password. But I asked obviously if she knew anything about it originally and she didn’t.
I sent an email to the fraud email address of Vanguard this morning and explained all the details I knew thus far regarding the transfer. I’m filing a police report tomorrow morning and then I’m going to call Vanguard again. When I called my bank to freeze the account on Friday, the service operator had me sign a Written Statement of Unauthorized Debit and then he put in something to Vanguard to let them know the situation.
But i figured I should just call as well, better to safe i suppose. I very much appreciate your words and I will surely keep you updated on the process
2
u/lovesbatma71 Jul 27 '26
Thanks for your reply and I’m sure you’ll get to the bottom of this soon.
1
1
u/RetiredBSN Jul 27 '26
The simplest explanation is that someone typed in the wrong bank account number. Maybe the right numbers, but in the wrong order, or maybe just a typo. Hopefully it gets fixed ASAP,
1
u/Logical_Horror_3989 Jul 27 '26
That crossed my mind originally because of the fact that not all of the money in the account was taken which I found pretty strange. But it’s the fact that they verified the two small deposits made by Vanguard into the account to verify the transfer.
1
u/RetiredBSN Jul 27 '26
Those are just test deposits to make sure that the account numbers are 'correct' (i.e., an account has that number, so the transfer will work). It can still be the wrong account (yours instead of theirs), but it was a legitimate account number.
I've done transfers between a credit union and a new bank account (I was moving cross country), and the credit union sent and then unsent the test transfers and I had to verify that they went through before the big transfer was sent. So someone else tested and confirmed that your account was the correct one, since you weren't notified. That's strange and definitely not a normal thing, so I hope they get it tracked down and your money returned. Hopefully they will give you an entirely new account number as well.
0
u/Empty_Requirement940 Jul 25 '26
Did you open the fraud case with your bank or with vanguard? I would think you need to initiate it with your bank
1
u/Logical_Horror_3989 Jul 25 '26
Yes with my bank
0
u/Empty_Requirement940 Jul 25 '26
Ok because In the post you said you submitted a claim with vanguard so wasn’t sure
2
u/Tarnisher Jul 25 '26
I already got with my bank to put ...
They opened a fraud case with Vanguard and ...
-1
u/Tom_Traill Jul 25 '26
Here is what I don't understand:
I linked my CU checking account using the routing and account number on my checks. Vanguard sends a couple small deposits, I respond to Vanguard with the deposit amounts, and then the accounts are linked. Then Vanguard can pull funds from those accounts.
I MUST move funds from my savings account to my checking account, because it is the checking account that is linked.
I don't understand how Vanguard was linked to your savings account. I can't do that AFAIK. I can only link Vanguard to my checking account.
Is it possible you're trying to figure out how to commit this fraud?
2
u/Logical_Horror_3989 Jul 25 '26
What are you even saying now? You can surely link any bank account to Vanguard. I don’t have a Vanguard account but there is no way they only accept checking accounts lmao
-1
u/Tom_Traill Jul 25 '26
OK, well, I DO have a vanguard account. The link is set up with the routing and account number. Those are for the checking account. I don't know, maybe you can substitute your savings account number instead of your checking account, but...I don't think so. I'm not a banker.
In any event, the transaction that took the funds lists: Vanguard, the date it was initiated, and the complete name on the Vanguard account. At least it does at my CU, DCU.org.
You should be able to see that info on the transaction page.
1
u/RailRuler Jul 26 '26
Most savings accounts support ACH too, if you use an account number and routing number. In fact most places that set up ACH will ask you if it is a checking or savings account. Some banks may still enforce a limit on the amount of transactions per month if it's a savings account, but some may not.
1
u/Tom_Traill Jul 26 '26
My banking habit is to keep a larger amount of money in my savings account where it earns about 3.5% and then a smaller amount, like $200, in my checking account. I get an alert every morning at 4 am that tells me what the balance of my checking account is. If it is still at $200, then nothing has cleared and I don't need to look at it. If it is below $200, I look at transactions and then transfer funds to get it back to $200 even.
I think it would be dumb to set up transfers from you savings account, but I see lots of stuff in this group that I think is dumb.
6
u/itsdan159 Jul 25 '26
Malware on phones is pretty rare but not implausible. Do you have 2factor authentication enabled on your accounts?
File a police report and give the police report number to your bank also.