When somebody steals your MONEY

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  • When somebody steals your MONEY

    Would a bank take responsibility if someone stole millions of dollars from an innocent person and made it look like it was the victim who just recklessly spent their money?

    Scenario: You are worth about $10 Million. One day you look in your account and you only have $about $25k to your name. Your statement shows where you have bought all this random stuff and when you go to the bank/feds to complain they tell you they will investigate. Their investigations conclude that it appears YOU spent the money.

    Are you S.O.L. or does someone else get involved, etc?
    One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

    The Fiction Story Room

  • #2
    Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

    Originally posted by Juno Styles View Post
    Are you S.O.L. or does someone else get involved, etc?
    You mean, as in Jack Reacher? The Toothe Faery? Your lawyer?

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    • #3
      Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

      If a millionaire has been wiped out I don't think $25k would take care of his immediate bills in addition to lawyer fees for long.
      One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

      The Fiction Story Room

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

        Originally posted by Juno Styles View Post
        If a millionaire has been wiped out I don't think $25k would take care of his immediate bills in addition to lawyer fees for long.
        Then does that mean you've answered your question?

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        • #5
          Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

          Originally posted by Manchester View Post
          Then does that mean you've answered your question?
          No it just means yours isn't really plausible in that particular scenario - the lawyer suggestion that is. The first two are just bad jokes, but that's cool. I just didn't put a smiley emoticon or anything.
          One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

          The Fiction Story Room

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

            The bank would probably be heavily involved.

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            • #7
              Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

              Originally posted by Juno Styles View Post
              No it just means yours isn't really plausible in that particular scenario - the lawyer suggestion that is. The first two are just bad jokes, but that's cool. I just didn't put a smiley emoticon or anything.
              You'd find a lawyer willing to help out on a contingency fee basis. That would be very plausible under the right circumstances. For example - if there's any element of the bank being at fault, you're likely looking at a recovery over $10m - which means anywhere from $2m and above for the lawyer. That $25k could be used to pay a retainer.

              In all honesty, there are some details lacking in the original post which make it tough to really give a concrete answer.

              Who took the money, was it all in one bank account, what other assets does this person have (e.g. house, boat, cars), what kind of people does this person know, what kind of crumbs were left behind by the person who stole the money, etc.

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              • #8
                Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

                I find it implausible that someone would keep $10mil in one account. Being "worth" $10mil implies this is the total of all assets -- and wouldn't that mean investments as well? Nobody keeps millions in one bank acct, do they? Seems like a poor wealth management strategy. ...Or maybe this character is just that oblivious? Which would make it more plausible that someone could make it appear they just spent the money. There would have to be some serious breach.

                And my bank has in the past called me to say "You're spending money in unusual patterns, please verify you're the one doing this." This stuff is monitored.
                "You have idea 1, you're excited. It flops. You have idea 99, you're excited. It flops.
                Only a fool is excited by the 100th idea. Fools keep trying. God rewards fools." --Martin Hellman, paraphrased

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                • #9
                  Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

                  Something similar happens in Dark Knight Rising-- Bane makes trades on all of Bruce Wayne's stocks. I think they suggest that he might be able to get the money back, but it will take years of litigation.

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                  • #10
                    Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

                    Originally posted by Juno Styles View Post
                    Would a bank take responsibility if someone stole millions of dollars from an innocent person and made it look like it was the victim who just recklessly spent their money?

                    Scenario: You are worth about $10 Million. One day you look in your account and you only have $about $25k to your name. Your statement shows where you have bought all this random stuff and when you go to the bank/feds to complain they tell you they will investigate. Their investigations conclude that it appears YOU spent the money.

                    Are you S.O.L. or does someone else get involved, etc?
                    Late to this party, but if the purchases were made with cards of some sort, then banks these days have pretty sophisticated pattern-recognition algorithms to detect fraud both before it's attempted and after it happens. Someone tried to use my card recently, and I was pretty impressed at how thorough they were and the kinds of questions they were asking.

                    Beyond that, given that credit card fraud is actually pretty rife and could be potentially damaging to faith in the system (a system that charges enormous interest), banks and credit suppliers have a vested interest in keeping people who have been ripped off pretty happy. They eat a fair bit of fraud as a cost of doing business.

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                    • #11
                      Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

                      I work in banking and file disputes for fraudulent account activity all the time. Granted, it's usually to the tune of a few hundred and has never been more than a couple thousand, but the rules still apply.

                      First, someone else mentioned that someone who's worth $10M is going to have their assets in several places. This is 100% correct 99% of the time. Most people with money are financially savvy and try to keep a diverse portfolio. This means they've got their assets in stocks and bonds, safe products like CDs, and liquid products like money markets.

                      Although FDIC insurance only covers $250K per financial institution (this can be inflated to a higher number if the account owner adds beneficiaries to several different accounts), people will often keep much more than that. However, it does make sense to divide the assets between a few institutions, because if one fails, you haven't lost all of your money.

                      Now, if a ton of your money suddenly goes missing, you're protected. Regulation E gives a customer 60 days to file a dispute over any unauthorized electronic transactions, at which point the bank is required to investigate these. If they determine that the customer did not authorize these transactions, the bank must credit the account for the missing funds. If the bank can figure out who did it, they will press charges. The customer who lost the money may even be required to appear in court as a witness, depending on the circumstances.

                      The government might also get involved in some form, especially for this amount. If a customer filed a police report, for instance, the police might issue a subpoena for the customer's records and then follow up on their own.
                      QUESTICLES -- It's about balls on a mission.

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                      • #12
                        Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

                        Originally posted by Manchester View Post
                        You mean, as in Jack Reacher? The Toothe Faery? Your lawyer?
                        Just want to say: I would pay to see the Tooth Fairy take care of this.

                        - Bill
                        Free Script Tips:
                        http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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                        • #13
                          Re: When somebody steals your MONEY

                          Thanks everybody for the input and great point about the Dark Knight reference. My antagonist will be doing sort of a sophisticated robbery like Bane did actually (although not by force but through computer hacking).

                          Knaight thanks for the more detailed insight as well.

                          Just goes to show how broke I'm used to being in terms of wealth management/having money, etc lol....but anyway, my antagonist is a criminal hacker so now I will think in terms of how he would wipe someone out electronically through stocks and bonds, etc.
                          One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

                          The Fiction Story Room

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