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[robbiecia]

choppychugger, after reading your post, something does not seem right about this.

Any bank i have ever used in this country has ALWAYS asked for ID, when using a bank book.

I have had to produce ID in order to receive any money in this country (money changers being the exception)

If this is the work of a complete stranger, then this is very worrying to any foreigner living here

Good luck to you

Edited May 31, 2009 by robbiecia

[choppychugger]

choppychugger, after reading your post, something does not seem right about this.

Any bank i have ever used in this country has ALWAYS asked for ID, when using a bank book.

I have had to produce ID in order to receive any money in this country (money changers being the exception)

If this is the work of a complete stranger, then this is very worrying to any foreigner living here

Good luck to you

Robbiecia,

I couldnt agree more - am stuck at an airport now, and shall be back home by the time the bank opens. Am itching to get to the bottom of this, and will post my findings when I do.

Cheers

Choppy

[Pierrot]

You need to do a police report for at least the lost book. The bank will want to see that.

They require that even if the book is just lost before they will give you a new book.

IMO the bank is responsible because they should ask for an ID before handing over the money and I think there may be even a law that says that.

thats just been done and all good - but what do you think the chance of getting our money back is?

The same thing happened to my wife and I a couple of years ago, to the tune of about 60k baht.

Despite the fact that it was my wife's account and the security video clearly showed a Thai male withdrawing the bank denied all responsibility. The bank told us the the book was our responsibility and so therefore it was essentially our fault, a fair point about keeping the book safe but how they could clearly give the money to the wrong person is beyond me.

Of course the police where as helpful as an Igloo in the desert. You've lost the money mate i'm afraid, the best thing for you to do now is to put it behind you and learn from it (keep the book safe in the future)

Ok - that was kinda the way we were looking at it. Ouch - lesson learnt, just waiting to herar what the bank says.

And I guess that the way the bank hopes you look at it.

200,000 Baht is a large amount of money. If someone at the bank is found responsable for this loss and the bank has to pay you back, he, and his supervisor, is in big trouble, so I wouldn't expect too much help from their side.

I would fill immediately a report with the police and send a copy to the branch in charge of your account, copy to the headquarter and, if there is one, to the government department in charge of all bank matters. If this letter can be sent by a lawyer, it would be even better. You should let them with no doubt that you will spare no effort to get you money back.

[cmsally]

As an extra piece of info. Sometimes I withdraw money from my husband's acct and in doing so need the withdrawal form and for him to sign his authorisation on the form. Need a copy of his ID and mine too.

That is an example of what banks need if not the owner of the acct withdrawing. (But I always have the passbook).

[Tokay]

So if it is not the banks responsibility, then in theory, someone who works for a bank could just clean house and steal money from everyones account and the bank would have no liability?

That just doesn't seem right to me. It is too flawed.

[jackr]

Cynicism aside, I hope it is down to a rogue element and/or bank error as opposed to Mrs choppychucker collaborating and pullin a fast one.

All the best.

[Geekfreaklover]

Cynicism aside, I hope it is down to a rogue element and/or bank error as opposed to Mrs choppychucker collaborating and pullin a fast one.

All the best.

Someone had to say it I guess. And it's not to be overlooked. Ex Mrs Geekfreaklover once found a bank card and pin in the post and stung me to the tune of half a million BT from a savings account back in the UK. I didn't find out till months later down the line and nothing I could do.

This situation seems different and I would explore all other avenues first. Unless she is a card player.

Best of luck tomorrow.

[choppychugger]

I hear what your saying but Mrs Choppychugger has been dealing with our joint account for about 5 years now, money coming in around 400-600k a month, and there has never been a problem

Tomorrow I am hoping to have a picture of the thief from the bank, then I can start going about police/lawyers/ wanted reward posters?

Could all amount to nothing - but I will try my damdest to get to the bottom of it.

Choppy

p.s If and when I get a picture from the cctv footage, could I post it on T.V?

[SMEEERE]

i really wish you luck but the thai banks are ruthless, surely as others have said id is needed to withdraw and all banks have cctv, id be asking for a copy and creating merry hel_l,

[SMEEERE]

There was a case like this in bkk where the thief had a friend that was a teller, no id asked for, the teller said id was given,it was a lot of money, a cop was hired, video obtained and all was revealed,

[cmsally]

Also ask to see the withdrawal slip that person used to get money from your acct.

The bank keep a copy. Then you will see who signed or tried to forge or whatever.

[saintofsilence]

I know it's too late now but if you was signed up to receive withdrawal alerts you would get a sms or email when it happens

[TheLaughingMan]

Do not accept no for an answer, and dont let other falangs tell you "too bad", get your money back. Be adamant. Thais will immediately try to not take responsibility, make sure they do.

[djc45]

I don’t think there will be a problem if the cash has been taken from the bank over the counter they will have to give it back if they have not followed the banking rules for a withdrawal this will be easy to check

Trouble is I don’t see how they would have done it with the checks they make when you make a withdrawal

If its been taken from an atm then you might have a bigger problem to get your cash back

Hope you get it sorted out ok

[sassienie]

There is a portion on the withdrawal form for the account holder to give consent to a friend or family member to withdraw money on the account holder’s behalf.

Once a week my wife withdraws money from her elderly mother’s account on behalf on her mother, for her mother’s living expenses, using the consent part on the withdrawal slip.

Because my mother in law is almost blind, sometimes my wife forges her mother’s signature for convenience.

Although both have different surnames, my wife only shows her ID card, than the bank clerk pays over the money, no questions asked.

So if this is the case that someone has forged a signature of the account holder on the slip, than the bank should have details of the identity of the withdrawer.

If bank rules impose that the withdrawer who is someone other than the account holder should also show the ID of the account holder and did not do so, than the bank is at fault.

[timinchina]

This gives rise to another subject which is closely related: Electronic money transfers. I use them and so my friend's email with an attached discussion of a court decision rendered in a case involving a foreign wire transfer from a bank in Canada to Switzerland that did not get get deposited was of interest to me. Apaprently, if a bank can show that followed it's instructions (swift documentation etc.),the bank that sends the money is not liable. In this case the money went from one reputable bank to another but was not deposited. I don't know how it got lost. The Swiss bank denied liability as well, saying that it never arrived.

So, here's my question to the Thai banking experts; In the OP's case, if there was a "mysterious disappearance" what is the bank's liability? In the case of a wire transfer that is not deposited. what is the bank's liability, if the claimant can show that the money was indeed sent? I rely on electronic banking so, what the heck am I supposed to do?

This is nonsense,if a bank sends the money and it doesn't hit the account,they will put a trace on the wire to find out where it is.

Most of the time it will be sitting in a suspense account at the correspondent bank waiting for additional details of the beneficiary but it WILL sit there until it's traced,when it will be credited to the correct account.

No bank will lose money electronically,it's just not possible!

[timinchina]

It happenned to me once and it was because i used a computer with key logging software on it in bangkok , they got all my details and used my account to make international money transfers, so you have to be carefull now I wont do any bank transfers online unless I use my own PC and I always use norton internet security software to safegaurd against keyloggers and viruses etc.

Most decent banks now use security devices that generate a series of random numbers to get around this problem,although it's not advisable to use shared computers for banking purposes if it can be avoided.

[timinchina]

So if it is not the banks responsibility, then in theory, someone who works for a bank could just clean house and steal money from everyones account and the bank would have no liability?

That just doesn't seem right to me. It is too flawed.

The whole thing stinks,no bank will give money to an unidentified individual...I'm sorry,it's an inside job!

[IMA_FARANG]

Have just found out our yellow bank book (Ayudhya) is missing - and nearly 200,000 thb has been taken out of our account. We last saw it on Friday. Being Sunday we are having a bit of a nightmare getting hold of the bank untill our branch opens in an hour.

Can someone else take money out from your own branch without I.D and just the book?

Because we have only just noticed - what chance do we stand of getting our money back?

This isnt case of a rogue family member, and please hold back on criticism for losing the bank book. I just really want to know if we can get the money back.

In despair

Choppy

Some info on Joint bank accounts from my experience:

My account is with Bangkok Bank.

1. Joint accounts---either of the accont owners/names can withdraw money. It does not require both signatures.

2. Even with the bank book a signature is required. The teller should require ID. My Thai girlfriend uses her Thai ID, I use my passport as ID.

3. If one partner had ATM card, ATM and PIN number can take out from ATM.

4. The bank should have photo of transaction if money withdrawn from teller. But you need to know when money was withdrawn to look for that transaction if video still available. Assuming they had video survielance of withdrawal.

5. I guess the chance of getting money back is minimal.Bank will say that presentation of bankbook was vaild and therefore they let money be withdrawn. Only possiblity is if the signature on teller withdrawal slip is obviously false. If they used machines at bank to withdraw money (because they had bankbook) then your probably out of luck.

Edited May 31, 2009 by IMA_FARANG

[longstebe]

The thing I don't like about our joint account(fixed interest) is we are unable to have online banking.The savings account we can.Also we have no atm card for the fixed account.Weird.

[SMEEERE]

My wife tells me she does not need to show id for withdrawl,they check the invisible signature only,

[SMEEERE]

So if it is not the banks responsibility, then in theory, someone who works for a bank could just clean house and steal money from everyones account and the bank would have no liability?

That just doesn't seem right to me. It is too flawed.

The whole thing stinks,no bank will give money to an unidentified individual...I'm sorry,it's an inside job!

Unfortunaly not correct,,my wife can draw with her book, does not get asked for id, but they do the invisible signature scan, she also says its easy to forge, and if funds go missing it is the fault of the acount holder for not taking care of the book, ,why does that not surprise me in thaiand

[dave111223]

My wife tells me she does not need to show id for withdrawl,they check the invisible signature only,

But is this still the case even if your wife was to withdraw 200,000 baht at one time? They may not check ID for a few thousand baht, but a few hundred thousand....

[HankChinasky]

Sorry to hear your misadventure choppychugger, thanks for sharing it with peoples on TV.

It reminds me that I should transfer all my money back to my home country on a regular basis where that kind of sh#t doesn't happen. Only keep a minimum amount in Thai banks...

Edited June 1, 2009 by HankChinasky

[thaimiller]

Things like this always seem to happen when the farang in the relationship is out of the country But I hope it works out for you in the end.

[simcity]

My wife tells me she does not need to show id for withdrawl,they check the invisible signature only,

My bank told me over Baht 15000 (i think) they do ask ID for withdraw

[bonobo]

It is not only Thai banks which deny liability.

Before I went to Iraq, I removed my estranged wife's name from my business account. This is on the local branch of a large US bank, one which knows me on sight.  I made a big deal about removing her and letting everyone there know she no longer had access to the account.

So imagine my surprise when I returned from Iraq to find out she had withdrawn some $25,000 from the account (on top of money I had already given her for living expenses.)  When I brought this to the attention of the bank, they refused to admit culpability or liability.  I was told they had nothing to do with it and I would have to take the matter up with the district attorney to have them go after my wife.

Thailand or the US (or probably most places) banks are goign to do what they can to protect their bottom line.  So to the OP, I am sorry to say that I doubt you will ever see a baht of that money back.

[warfie]

Based on my own experience, you could have a chance.

400,000THB stolen from my account through card skimming.

I was told repeatedly by different sources that if it was a passbook account and not an ATM card I would have been fine.

I did everything possible, police reports, lawyers, Consumer Protection Commission (or whatever it's called here), court, everything... meaning that in the end I just lost more money...

I hope you have better luck than me!

[bonobo]

Based on my own experience, you could have a chance.

400,000THB stolen from my account through card skimming.

Out of curiousity, how did the perpretator take the money?  Did they know the pin?

I am considering getting an ATM card for my Thai account, and I would like to know the possible problems with that.

[PoorSucker]

I have taken out big amouts of money with only invisible signature.

This is in my branch.

If I go to another branch they want copy of my passport.