This is a story about a man named Marvellous, and his miserable experience with identity theft.
It started with a mistake he made, and then spiraled into a months-long mess. That is, until CBS 2 stepped in to help get his missing $15,000.
Marvellous Taylor left his wallet at the self-checkout at a south suburban grocery store. He canceled all his bank cards, but a crook still got their hands on his driver's license, which is the holy grail for identity theft.Turns out, the crook went into Fifth-Third bank branches and did an old fashioned withdrawal with Taylor's driver's license.
"The same guy took the money out over and over and over," said Taylor."He went in like five, six different times."Taylor filed a police report of the crime. The bank let him see videos of the transactions and Taylor told CBS 2 he looks nothing like the thief.He disputed the transactions with Fifth-Third. He was stunned to learn of the bank's decision: The bank researchers found the transactions were valid.
Taylor returned to a Fifth-Third branch with his new ID, so bank officials could confirm he indeed was not the person captured on their cameras withdrawing all that money.Fifth-Third apologized to Taylor for the length of the investigation. It took six months for Taylor to get his money back.They also encourage anyone to report suspicious activity as soon as possible and make sure the bank knows your ID was stolen as well.
Marie Saavedra joined the CBS2 Chicago news team in October 2020 as an anchor. She grew up in Evanston and is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism.Thanks for reading CBS NEWS.Please enter valid email address to continue