Who has access to your bank account?

Posted by Caitlin on July 22nd, 2009

Robin Katz, pictured at right, doesn't necessarily look like the kind of person who would siphon $110,000 from your checking account. But Katz, a Smith College graduate and Chase financial planner, did just that to one of her millionare clients. She created an extra ATM card in her victim's name and used it to make dozens of withdrawals from his account, starting in June of 2008. Her victim, a poker-playing Wall Street broker, didn't notice the missing funds until June of 2009. She'd been spending his money for a full year! We should all be so lucky to have so much cash in our checking accounts that we don't even realize when $110,000 goes missing. Since most of us don't keep a seven-figure balance in checking, we'd probably make this discovery a little earlier. But it serves as a good reminder to check your bank statements carefully for suspicious transactions. And consider investing in credit report monitoring or identity theft protection, to help ensure that your money stays where it belongs. Because you never know who could be accessing your accounts.