We Almost Got Scammed Big Time

[Dips]

And we have no idea who did it.

Hannah, our accountant, got a call from our bank. They had received a faxed wire transfer request for $27,000 to a bank in Russsia. It looked legit, but they called just to be sure. Their reason for calling was that Hannah rarely wires money out and always went down to the bank in person to do those transactions. Thank goodness Hannah is a creature of habit and the bank people questioned getting a fax.

So Hannah asked for a copy of the faxed request the bank recieved. It was on our fax cover sheet with our letterhead. It had our account number and routing information and it had a copy of Hannah's signature. It must have been pieced together form various bits of correspondence, checks or wire payments sent to us.

It could be any one of dozens of customers or resellers who had access to that information and we have no way of finding out who it was. It's a very creepy feeling.

[Javarod]

Actually it is possible, difficult and likely expensive though. Keep in mind that the phone company has records, lots and lots of records, and while it can take some time, they can most definitely find that info. The problem is that as far as I know, they'll only turn that over if there's a criminal investigation going on, and only to the law enforcement office that requests it. That said, this could be reported to the FBI, not sure if its enough to get them to do something about it, that's dependent on whether you were the only target or not.

[rerant]

I don't know a lot about how fax machines work, but is there a way to see what fax number something is sent from in the same way of finding a number that called you?
If it's possible it could become helpful.

[Pedersen]

You're thinking about the station ID, rerant. Unfortunately, the station ID is programmed by the user, so can claim to be anything, and coming from any phone number. Heck you could set up your fax machine to claim to come from Bill Gates/Microsoft, and threaten to audit a given company with no effort.

Unfortunately, the station ID is even less worthless than the paper it's printed on. The phone company is the only option.

[Andara Bledin]

I would definitely report that to the authorities.

They might contact the bank in Russia about the account, and it could possibly stop future scams with that same account. You never know.

^-.-^

[Marnier]

Being such a high amount of money wouldn't this be an attempt at grand larceny?
If so then the police should definitely be involved and it should be easier to obtain phone records.
I think anything over $10,000 here(the states) requires a lot of identification.

[Slytovhand]

Sort of agreed with all of the above - except that this won't be a one-off, and whoever has attempted this will already be 'of interest' to the relevant authorities. And maybe, just maybe, because it's been caught before any money has transferred, they (as in FBI) just might be even more interested in it.

It is obviously something well thought out, planned, and has been successful before.

I don't know what exact law it comes under (certainly fraud and theft), but go do whatever you can about it....

Oh - and yes - there are other ways to track them down. How about... no 2 signatures that are actually signed are identical. If Hannah actually signs her signature (rather than having someone else, or a stamp with it) then you just need to go through the photocopies you keep (or the original - I am, of course, assuming this bit) with a hand analysis expert. Of course, if it was forged......