Bank to woman: Sorry, but you're dead

[kpete]

Hey banks: This woman is alive!
Posted: Tuesday, August 31 2010 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

Judy Rivers went to the bank with a simple request in April: She wanted to open a safe deposit box. The response, while equally simple, was a complete surprise. The bank turned her down. Why?

She was dead.

At least that's what the bank's security systems indicated. Sorry, a bank official said, we can't open an account for you. Rivers asked more questions but got only vague answers. An outside company indicated there was a problem with her Social Security number, she was told, but the bank wouldn't tell her the name of the firm.

"Needless to say, I was startled," said Rivers, 58, who lives in Jasper, Ala. And so began her digital murder mystery.

more:
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/08/hey-banks-this-woman-is-alive.html

[lapfog_1]

1. hey, she could always just be spending a year dead for tax purposes, no?

I hear that there is an out of this world restaurant where she can rub elbows with rock stars that have the same problem!

[uncommon]

7. lol

[napi21]

2. Good thing she found out now! She should have time to check

and clear up the error before she needs to file for SS! Boy, what a PIA THAT would be.

[happyslug]

8. According to the Article, SSA has the information correctly i.e she is alive

SSA actually requires a death certificate or other proof of death, credit reporting agencies do not (and county Coroners send them such paperwork all the time). Since the Social Security Administration (SSA) Records shows that she is still alive she could apply for Social Security and get it, for she is still alive as far as the Social Security Administration (SSA) is concerned.

The problem is a private company who is NOT using death certificates NOT SSA.

[happyslug]

3. When I was in the Military 30 years ago, the "best" way to screw someone was to report him KIA

KIA = Killed in Action. Effective even in peacetime. Pay stops, allowances stop, etc and at the same time he is still active so he would still have to serve. Once someone was marked KIA it could take months to correct that error and one story I heard was people lost months of pay once reported KIA. The system was quick to marked people KIA but almost impossible to correct if it was in error.

[SargeUNN]

4. I am a minor according to the credit bureau

I went to open a checking account at Desert Schools Credit Union here in Phoenix soon after I arrived. I was denied but the reason kept changing with everyone I talked to as to why. Finally with the help of a friend we were able to find out the real reason which was that Experiant Credit Bureau had accepted a report from a bank in Mississippi that I was a minor. I had my VA letter showing I am a service connected disabled Vietnam Era vet, my social security letter and even when the woman said it is obvious you aren't close to being a minor we still have to assume the credit bureau is correct and until it changes we can't open up an account for you.

[MindPilot]

5. Amex thinks I've been a customer since 1970.

In 1970 I was fifteen.

[Aristus]

6. This happened to a customer of mine when I worked in banking.

The SSA had reported her dead, so her Social Security, her military pension, and her civilian GS pension were stopped. (She had served 28 years in the Air Force). She was essentially destitute. She knew me and trusted me, so she came to me in tears asking for help. I spent half a day on the phone with the SSA saying things like "Yes, yes, of course; she's sitting right in front of me. Yes, she has proper identification. No...this is the same woman I have helped as a customer back when you were aware she was alive. Nothing has changed. Okay...well, can that department help me? Will you transfer me, please? Thank you." And on and on in circles for a couple of hours.

But I succeeded in getting her declared alive again. That felt good.

Banks can be crazy, as we all know now...

[SheilaT]

9. These various reports of

people being declared dead by a bank or reporting agency or whatever would be hilarious if it weren't for the very real impact it has on the person, and usually a financial one.

You'd think showing up with appropriate ID would be good enough.

As for being declared a minor, what birth date did they have?

Unfortunately, very few people have unique names, and so it's somewhat unsurprising to me that these mix-ups occur.

In the mid 1960's I worked for a credit bureau in a mid-sized city in the Southwest. It was completely paper records at the time, although we were already anticipating going on computers. (I wouldn't be surprised if credit bureaus weren't just about the first businesses that were computerized) Anyway, one of the things I learned to hate was the practice of naming a son after his father. Invariably, when junior reached young adulthood and began starting out on his own, the two records would get confused, because usually they lived at the same address, and much of the time at least one of them wasn't always using the jr. or sr. after his name. We'd come across these files and would try to separate them out, but often it was a hopeless task, because after the fact it just wasn't possible to figure out which one had made the particular credit application.

There seems to be one other person in the entire country with my same first and last name. There used to be another, but she got married and adopted her husband's last name. But that's still no guarantee against my records being messed up by some sort of carelessness. All someone needs to do is make a small typo, perhaps in my SSN, and who knows what would happen.

It's also happened to two people I know that after they'd been with the same employer for several years, someone made a mistake in their SSN, and so the wrong amount was taken from the paycheck, which wasn't discovered until the IRS decided to audit because all of a sudden their return didn't look right.

[SargeUNN]

10. for further information on my situation mentioned

I was told by Desert Schools to contact Eperiant to get it corrected. I tried but was informed that I had to submit a written statement that would be looked at in within 30 days and if they thought it was worth looking into then they would and in a period of months if they did investigate a correction would be made. I used my media position to get past this and requested to have one of them come on my show to explain several cases I had turned up as well as my own. They declined the invitation and suddenly the incorrect statement was removed. They also told me at this point who had submitted the report and I contacted that bank. It turned out that the bank had bought another bank that I had had an account but had stopped using a year or so before they bought. They tried to get me to pay fees that I had been incorrectly charged and forgiven so to get back at me they submitted the report. That bank did correct it with the credit bureau to avoid the bad press.

[SheilaT]

21. You make a very interesting point.

All of these cases, if not resolved quickly and with cancellation of erroneous fees, full reinstatement of benefits or whatever, should immediately be brought to the attention of the media.

While mistakes can happen. And human imperfection is definitely going to lead to a certain number of these things happening, the reporting bureaus, banks, and so on should make correcting such mistakes an absolute priority.

Speaking of identity mix-ups:
I was recently working at my local hospital doing out-patient registration. Had a patient who is native American, born on his tribes lands, and because he is an identical twin, has the same birthdate as his brother. His parents gave both boys the same first "American" name, and different Indian names. I actually didn't realize until twenty minutes into the registration procedure that there were two of him, and that only came up when I was double checking his wife's name. "No," he laughed, "that's my brother's wife." It took several more questions for me to realize what was going on. My guy had never been to that hospital before, although his brother had, which was why I was looking at the records of the other "Tom Smith", same DOB, almost an identical address. I spent a good ten minutes more making sure two separate records were created, and told my "Tom Smith" to make sure his brother was made aware of this issue, and to be very careful to make a big deal out of which one he was when either of them went to the hospital again.

They do have different SSN, and that's one very important reason medical records are linked to SSN. That and date of birth are good, unique identifiers. Obviously, someone who uses another's SSN for fraudulent purposes is another issue altogether.

[uppityperson]

11. I got increasingly threatening letters from a credit card co saying I owed $0.00

They were going to send me to collections unless I immediately sent them $0.00 in full. It took a couple phone calls to clear it up. I offered to send a check for $0.00 since, if I did it over the phone they would charge a service fee, but they figured out a way to credit me $0.00 to clear my account.

It was rather odd.

[Boojatta]

15. "I offered to send a check for $0.00"

Why didn't you challenge them to pursue their claim in Zero Claims Court?

[uppityperson]

18. was concerned it would be a black mark on my credit report

although it would be obvious to any who looked as to wtf it was. It was rather amusing talking to them, being patient and all. I let it go until I got the "sending to collections" letter. Huh, I'll have to ask a process server I know if ever served papers for a credit card co for $0.00. I actually thought of sending them a check for $0.01 so I'd have a credit and they'd waste time/paper every month telling me this, but a couple phone calls got me someone who could actually help and laugh about it.

[spinbaby]

16. I once got a threatening letter because I had a credit.

Bought something at Penney's, paid the bill, then returned the item for a credit. Got several letters warning me that they would have to take some unspecified measures if I didn't do something about my outstanding credit.

[uppityperson]

19. too funny, you slacker you

[slackmaster]

12. I'm tired of these uppity dead people

First they vote, now they want to open bank accounts.

What's next, dead people wanting to get married?

:crazy:

[jberryhill]

13. Damned Zombies

[Boojatta]

14. "The bank turned her down."

Shouldn't the bank have contacted the person who was handling the estate, and notified that person that the dead woman was being turned down?

[Incitatus]

17. God luck getting insurance.

[ThomCat]

20. Can you imagine if this happens to a person with a disability

whose LIFE depends on UNINTERRUPTED access services? If you are one of us, you MUST exist within several bureaucracies at all times, and you MUST receive a check on time, and you MUST receive certain services.

If you are declared dead and any of these complicated transactions stop and can't be immediately put back into place your life is at risk. If your income gets cut off, or some essential service gets suspended and can't be put back in place IMMEDIATELY, or you lose some portion of your health services, or transportation to and from health services, or some form of essential support service that you depend on to exist and survive, you are totally screwed!

All I can say is, thank all the gods and little tooth fairies that this woman had the independence and resources to survive until this could be investigated and resolved. I'm glad she could get a lawyer, and wait as long as it took while all of this good slowly worked out.

:(