What To Do If Someone Has Your Bank Account Number

Contact your bank right away and watch out for unauthorized transactions

Fact checked by Brendan Harkness

If someone has your bank account number, you should act fast to prevent or minimize the impact of any potential fraud. Contact your bank right away, review your bank statements for any activity you don’t recognize, and check your credit reports.

Key Takeaways

• After you discover someone has your bank account number, contact your bank as soon as possible.
• If someone has your bank account number, they may be able to steal your money.
• Thieves can acquire your bank account number in several ways, such as by directing you to click on a link they send in an email or text message.
• Consider signing up for paperless statements so scammers can’t steal your bank statements from your mail.

What To Do Right Now If Someone Has Your Bank Account Number

Here are the steps to take right now if someone has gained access to your bank account number.

Review Your Bank Statements

Log in to your online account and check your recent banking activity. Are there any transactions that don’t look familiar or that you don’t remember making? These unauthorized charges might be the work of an online scammer who has your bank account number.

Contact Your Bank

Contact your bank or credit union immediately to let a customer service representative know that someone obtained your bank account number. This is especially important to do if you see suspicious activity—such as a check that you didn’t write—in your account. You should do this within 60 days of the statement showing the fraud, or you may be held liable for further fraudulent charges, although it’s still worth reporting fraud whenever it’s discovered.

If you believe somebody made an unauthorized transaction using your bank account information, request that the transaction be reversed and your money be returned.

Once you report an unauthorized transaction, your financial institution typically has 10 business days to look into it. If the bank finds that your complaint is legitimate, it must fix the situation within one business day of determining the complaint was legitimate. The bank must then share the findings of its investigation with you within three business days.

Federal law might offer you extra protection if an unauthorized transaction was made through an electronic funds transfer (such as an online bill payment) or with a debit card.

Consider Closing the Account

If someone has obtained unauthorized access to your bank account number, ask your financial institution to close your bank account and open a new one. Teri Williams, president and chief operating officer of OneUnited Bank, offered further points of advice.

Once you’ve closed the account, Williams recommends freezing your credit reports. Freezing your credit reports prevents creditors from accessing your credit file and prevents anyone from opening an account in your name.

“Although banks do not check your credit to open a bank account, they do check consumer reporting agencies to confirm your identity and will not open a new account if there is a freeze,” Williams said.

You can freeze and unfreeze your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus— Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—at no cost.

Check Your Credit Reports

Whether or not you request a credit freeze, you should monitor your credit reports for suspicious activity.

Report any suspected fraud to the three major credit bureaus and consider setting up a free fraud alert. You only need to notify one credit bureau to create a fraud alert, which will cover all three credit bureaus.

Inform the Federal Trade Commission

If you suspect you’ve been the victim of fraud, submit a report to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While reporting your suspicions might not help you immediately, it may help the FTC build criminal cases against scammers.

Report the Fraud

In addition to reporting it to the FTC, file a report of the suspected fraud with your local police or sheriff’s department. This is an important step in establishing a case of identity theft.

What Can Someone Do With Your Bank Account and Routing Numbers?

The consequences could be severe if your bank account number, routing number, or both wind up in the wrong hands. Potential issues include:

• Money stolen from your account through an electronic payment or transfer
• An online shopping spree carried out with money from your account
• Phony checks printed with your bank account and routing numbers that can be used to take money from your account
• A fake bank account established in your name
• Money laundered through your account
• Identity theft, such as if the scammers open new credit card accounts in your name

How Do Scammers Steal Bank Account Numbers?

Unscrupulous fraudsters can access and steal bank account numbers in a number of ways:

• Phishing: Phishing involves sending a fake email or text that prompts you to provide sensitive information, such as your bank account number. The email, text, or phone call may seem to be from your bank or another legitimate company, but is actually from a scammer.
• Cyberattacks: A hacker may be able to worm their way into your computer, phone, or other electronic device and hunt for account numbers and other important data. They might also try to load your device with malware that grants them further access to your device and the information on it.
• Data breaches: A hacker might break into a bank’s computer system and steal customers’ account numbers.
• Mail theft: In some cases, a crook might sift through your mail or trash to find a bank statement that includes your personal information.

Tips to Protect Your Bank Account and Routing Number

A few simple strategies can help protect your banking information. Here are tips for keeping your bank account and routing numbers safe from scammers.

• Be careful about clicking on links and downloading attachments in emails and other messages. Fraudsters can use links and attachments to phish for your bank account number, routing number, or other sensitive information. 
• If you get a message that seems to be from your bank, don’t click on anything. Instead, call your bank’s customer service phone number and ask if they contacted you.
• Sign up for paperless statements. Switching to electronic statements can reduce the risk that someone could steal your paper statements and get access to your bank account number.
• Monitor your bank account. Regularly reviewing your account activity could help prevent fraud, or at least limit the damage if you notice and report it right away. It’s a good idea to frequently check your online banking account, read your monthly statements, and set up alerts to stay on top of account activity.
• Use a debit card or credit card for online shopping, so you don’t need to provide your bank account number or routing number. Credit cards in particular have robust fraud protections, making them a relatively safe payment method.
• Secure your account. Make it tougher for a thief to steal your bank account number or routing number by creating a hard-to-guess account password, setting up two-factor authentication for online accounts and electronic devices, and installing or updating security software on your devices.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How Long Do You Have to Dispute Unauthorized Transactions to Your Bank?

You’ve got 60 days after receiving an account statement showing an unauthorized transaction to notify your bank that you want to dispute it. If you don’t notice suspicious transactions until after 60 days, you should still notify your bank, but you may not be able to recover the funds.

Can Someone Take Money From My Bank Account With Only My Account Number?

Fortunately, a scammer can’t withdraw money from your bank account with just your account number. To do so, they’d also need your bank’s routing number. 

Can Someone Take Money From My Bank Account With Only My Routing Number?

A routing number alone won’t allow access to money in your bank account. Everyone with an account at that bank will use the same routing number.

Are You Liable for Transactions That Scammers Make Using Your Account?

In general, you’re not liable for transactions made by scammers. However, you need to act fast: You could be held liable for at least part of an unauthorized transaction if you don’t notify your bank about it within a certain number of days. For example, you must tell your bank about any unauthorized transactions you spot within 60 days of receiving the statement showing that activity. If you don’t, you may be held liable for those charges and other fraudulent charges made after that.

Who Is It Safe to Give My Bank Account Numbers To?

You can usually provide bank account numbers without safety concerns to your employer, tax-filing services, payment and money transfer services, trusted relatives and friends, and companies that receive automatic bill payments from you.

The Bottom Line

If you believe someone has your bank account number and might use it to commit fraud, take action right away. Among the steps you should take are contacting your bank, reviewing your bank statements for unauthorized transactions, and checking your credit reports. Always protect your personal and financial information, including your bank account number, so that it doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.

Read the original article on Investopedia.