Although I have not had any relationship with a bank, and despite all the requirements that they demand when a person approaches one of their offices to open a savings account or apply for a credit card or, worse still, a loan, in my case it seems that none of that happened and the controls failed.
Without knowing it, I ended up with a savings account, a credit card and a free investment loan, and reported to the credit bureaus. I didn’t find out from the bank but from Dian.
So the events happened. On the night of Tuesday, August 11, reviewing the information that I must attach in the income statement, a procedure that many Colombians must do at this time, I was surprised: that financial entity had reported that as of December 31, 2019 I he recorded financial movements with them.
On the one hand, I appear with a credit card with a debt of 10,000,000 pesos, requested on July 29, 2019; a savings account with 10’000.182 pesos opened apparently on October 10 of last year, and a free investment loan for 10’000,000 pesos, processed on October 18 at the office of the Andino Commercial Center of Bogotá.
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Of course, all kinds of questions appeared in my mind: At what time did all this happen? How did you open an account, get a credit card and get a credit in my name? Why with a financial institution with which I do not have or have had any relationship? Why did that bank never look for me? Don’t banks have access to the data of all the people who are banked?
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Why with a financial institution with which I do not have or have had any relationship? Why did that bank never look for me?
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Immediately, that same night I began to search with anguish how to contact someone from that entity. I tried a phone number that I found on the internet, but my frustration was greater when the system asked me for a password to access an advisor. What password, if I don’t have an account? I wondered.
Ultimately, that search yielded results. I found the chat service. After write what I had discovered and provide data such as name, surname, ID and cell phone numbers, the operator confirmed: “In effect, it registers products for me with us ”, and then wrote:“ it would be necessary to generate an identity theft study ”.
He then asks me to go to one of the bank’s offices with the complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office and other documents. But he did not give me an answer to the request that he receive the complaint and give me the file. “I insist,” I wrote sharply. It was at that moment that he generated a 12-digit number. Fortunately, I took a snapshot, because in the email I received later, only the first and last 4 appear, the rest is a string “X”.
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And since the next day was even, due to the peak and ID established in Bogotá – my number ends in an even number – I couldn’t think of going to the Prosecutor’s Office or to that bank, they wouldn’t even let me in. So, I decided to access the application ‘To report’ of the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office. There I could interpose it, with very basic data, of course.
But there my anguish did not stop. Already with the suspicion that I had been a victim of impersonation, on Wednesday I requested information from the credit bureaus Cifin and Datacrédito. It is at that moment when I found out that the account was already inactive and the bank had written off those debts and, incidentally, reported me. With that, of course, my financial history, which I took care of all my life, went to the floor. If I now try to apply for a loan, no bank will lend me.
Given my concern with this issue, I went to two colleagues seeking advice – in whom I have found solidarity. This is how I was able to contact the communications office of said financial institution. Needless to say, it helped me escalate the claim. Two days later, the bank sent me a form to fill out, in which, in addition to the 10 fingerprints, they ask to sign with the left hand. I’ve never tried it before. Just holding the pen was hard for me. I am fully skilled.
So I decided to abort that option. Of course, in my return email, I told the bank that I am the victim and who is reporting, and it is not for me to prove that it is me, and that it is up to them to investigate and clarify with “urgency” that situation in which they put me for having controls that can be violated and for not having looked for me, neither by phone, nor by email, nor at the address of residence. So now I am the one who must look for the bank.
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But also, I have had to send emails and copies of documents to different entities. Because this issue is also with the credit bureaus, where I appear with a negative rating, and because of the false information reported to Dian, an entity to which I already informed of the impersonation. The same I did with the Superfinanciera and the Financial Customer Ombudsman.
After eight days of discovering that I was the victim of impersonation in front of a city bank, many questions still surround me, but, above all, how can someone use someone else’s name and open a savings account and obtain a credit card and Free investment credit with a bank, if it is not easy for anyone, because of the amount of things they ask for.
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I never imagined that something like this could happen to me. In fact, I remember that between 2016 and 2017, that same bank rejected a request for less value than the movements that now appear. At that time, he demanded a tax return, bank statements, labor and income and expense certifications, fill out a form, put fingerprints and sign. Of course, they checked even the smallest detail.
This case has also allowed me to know that I am not the only one who is impersonated before a financial institution. To so and so, to zutano and to that other, colleagues have told me, something similar happened to them, but not the same. I don’t know how frequent these cases are, but they do leave me concerned. Returning to my story, I only hope that the bank in question gives me a prompt solution and this does not end in a never ending matter.
GUILLERMO REINOSO RODRÍGUEZ
@ guirei24
[email protected]
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