Reporting Fraud on Your Bank Statement Can Have a Time Limit

How often do you check your bank statements? Monthly, weekly, daily? How quickly would you notice if you had money missing?

“$4,777.00,  I still remember the exact amount,” said John Ruze, remembering when he realized a discrepancy in his mother’s bank account.  "This is a lot of money to lose just like that for, you know, for just having an account."

Ruze and his siblings keep an eye on their 96-year-old mother’s affairs.  Last fall, they discovered a counterfeit check in her name had cleared in August, draining almost $5,000 from her account.   But they didn’t catch it right away.

“So we got the statement in early September but didn't realize it,  and my mother didn't see it, “ he said.  “Didn't realize the fraudulent check until late September...Beth called the bank, my sister,  immediately and reported it, and they assigned a claim number.”

Ruze said they reported the fraud to Citizens Bank on September 30 and filed a police report on October 1.  A week later they heard from the bank.

“We received a denial letter… that said they would not refund the money,” Ruze said.    “Because we had waited too long to report the claim to report the incident of fraud. It claimed we had waited too long.”

The letter from the bank said:

“As outlined in your personal deposit account agreement, you must notify us of errors no later than 30 days after we send you the first statement that shows the error.  The error first appeared on your statement sent August 22, 2022, however the error was reported on September 30, 2022.  Therefore, the items will not be credited as they were not reported timely.”

Ruze said they filed an appeal in November, and contacted NBC10 Boston Responds for help in January when they couldn’t get any updates. We reached out to the bank on their behalf, and Ruze says he filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"We felt that the bank, which sort of allowed this to all occur, they had some kind of responsibility,” he said.  "A fraudulent check being deposited, not noticing anything about it and not noticing that, hey, there's one name at the top, but it's a joint account.  Not noticing that the signature has nothing to match about it.  We felt, gee, the bank has some kind of responsibility. Maybe we're both responsible."

In February, Citizens notified the family it had completed its investigation and a permanent credit had been issued back to Ruze's mother.

“They refunded that money. They did the right thing.  And for that, we're really grateful,” he said.

Citizens Bank told NBC10 Boston Responds: "We are sorry to hear that one of our customers was the victim of counterfeit check fraud. Any potential fraud is required to be reported to us within 30 days from the statement close date, but in certain circumstances, we will make an exception. We encourage all of our customers to use online or mobile banking in order to see their transactions in real-time and take advantage of helpful alerts such as Citizens Peace of Mind, which offers customers the ability to avoid the expense of unexpected overdraft fees."

You generally have up to 30 days from the statement date to notify the bank of an error. 

Review your deposit account agreement for policies specific to your bank and your account.

And make the most of bank account alerts to help monitor your finances - they can alert you to suspicious or unusual account activity or a low balance. And then you can call the bank immediately to find out what’s going on.  

If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!