By Doug Bruce, Ron Hauck
Bruce Furniture
On May 19th of this year, a fraudulent $25,000 wire transfer took place at Bank of the West in Alliance on the Bruce Furniture checking account. This was the third time in last 12 months the account at this bank has been “hacked”.
There were two wire transfers attempted that day for the same amount. One was canceled by Bank of the West and the other one was allowed to go thru. Two days later Bruce Furniture was notified about these transactions.
The money was traced to an account at JP Morgan Chase Bank. This “unknown to Bruce Furniture” wire transfer was reported to Alliance Police Department, FBI and Office of the Controller of the Currency. They all said if money is not recovered in first 5 days, very unlikely will ever see again.
Bank of the West reported early October the funds were no where to be found and no further action will be taken by them. The $25,000 loss falls totally on Bruce Furniture!
The message here is to make sure your personal and business accounts are totally secure. You need complete cooperation from your bank in finding the money and confidence it will be restored to you when on line compromises do occur.