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Okay, okay so I already know what I did was stupid so please no comments about that, I just need serious and correct answers.

I gave my card to a person I kind of knew to deposit money to my bank account. I gave him my card, my PIN, my online banking login information, my answers to my security questions, and the last 4 of my SSN number.

By the end of the day a little over 1,900 dollars was deposited to my savings and the next day he took me to the bank to withdraw the money. I couldn't do it and my account was put on freeze.

So it turns out that the guy had went and got a fraudulent money order from Kroger and was trying to make multiple transactions on my card. I have text messages evidence to prove that I was being deceived, so since I gave them all my information and agreed to have them to put money onto my account, can I be prosecuted for fraud as well?

mhoran_psprep
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Michael Brown
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    I'm not sure. But you should definitely rat close that account, change all your security answers and rat out your "friend". – RonJohn Oct 05 '17 at 01:55
  • depends on your jurisdiction which you failed to include when asking for a serious and correct answer that can't possibly be given; but generally and legally, yes you can be as an accomplice because you can't prove that you were being "stupid" to give all this up to someone without any knowledge of what they are doing with it; plus its funny we got a question almost identical to this last week from another new user, seriously people, its call credentials for a reason - also you should worry about being prosecuted and not persecuted – GµårÐïåñ Oct 05 '17 at 02:01
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    Talk to a local attorney or the police. They can answer the question of whether or not you are in trouble with the law. – Ben Miller Oct 05 '17 at 02:17
  • Anyone can be prosecuted for anything. If you didn't lie or misrepresent anything, you didn't actually commit fraud. But you should probably talk to an attorney immediately to ensure that you do whatever you need to do to minimize your chances of being suspected of fraud. – David Schwartz Oct 05 '17 at 04:03
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    " I have text messages evidence to prove that I was being deceived, so since I gave them all my information and agreed to have them to put money onto my account, can I be prosecuted for fraud as well?" - save all of your "evidence" and talk to an attorney. You may well need legal help here. Don't talk to anyone else until your attorney advises you. Giving over your credentials to a fraudster could easily get you in trouble. – Joe Strazzere Oct 05 '17 at 12:06
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    Get a lawyer. Delete this post. What you have said here may constitute evidence in court. – Grade 'Eh' Bacon Oct 05 '17 at 12:52
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    @BenMiller attorney yes, police no. If you turns out you have done something illegal, you don't want them to be the first ones telling you so. – CactusCake Oct 05 '17 at 15:07

3 Answers3

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can I be prosecuted for fraud as well?

Yes. It is possible in several jurisdictions (e.g. UK). You have (unwittingly) cooperated with the fraudster and arguably been at least an involved party or accessory to a crime or attempted crime.

Whether you are actually prosecuted depends on whether the fraud or attempted fraud is reported or detected, whether the prosecutors obtain evidence you knew (or should reasonably have known) that there was some criminal aspect to the events and, at least partly, on your actions once you became aware of the fraud. However I am not a lawyer and law varies from place to place considerably.

According to Online Threat Alerts

If someone asks you to lend him/her your bank account, debit card and PIN number for a fee, or offer to transfer money to your bank account, ask you to transfer a certain amount to another account, and then asks you to keep the rest as payment, please do not take part in such activity. This type of activity is a money laundering scam, used by criminals to trick people into unknowingly taking part in a crime that can land them in jail.

I wouldn't worry too much, you have been extremely naive, foolish and negligent but what matters is how you behave now (probably).

RedGrittyBrick
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I'm guessing you're in the US? If so, yes, you can be prosecuted, but it's unlikely. Fraud crimes are up to a prosecutor to pursue, there are a lot of fraud cases and bystanders take low priority, I'm assuming you're passively complicit, not actively. If this is the case it's best to work with the bank to get your situation cleaned up and move on. These days, most banks have dealt with wire fraud at least once, and they're familiar with cashiers check fraud.

A fair warning, the bank will report you, if they think you're involved, so if you are not a complete bystander, you may want to lawyer up. So hopefully you didn't try to spend any of the fraudulent money and hopefully you have proof of a third party, because they will want a connection to that person (name/number/other) to file their report.

user1442498
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Okay bad decisions, time to move on:

  1. Close this account and open a new one. What you are seeking here is to have a different account number. You could use this as an opportunity to earn a little bit of money as many banks offer sign up bonuses.
  2. Start using a different pin, username, and password. If possible change your security answers. One way to change your security answers is to do some different capitalization, or use numbers for letters. For example you could do all lower case except for the last letter, or change 3 for e, 1 for i.
  3. Consider that $1900 gone, it was fraudulently placed there, so you should not expect to keep it. You may also be responsible for fees.

Then move on with your life and don't fall for this kind of thing again.

In the end you can probably end this with a net profit, or at worst, a small loss. You are welcome to breathe a sigh of relief.

Pete B.
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    Not my downvote, but the question was "can I be prosecuted for fraud as well?" which hasn't been answered here. – CactusCake Oct 05 '17 at 15:05
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    "One way to change your security answers is to do some different capitalization, or use numbers for letters. For example you could do all lower case except for the last letter, or change 3 for e, 1 for i." This is a horrid suggestion. Never do this with compromised information. Ditch it completely and entirely instead. This is the equivalent of using p@5$W0Rd as your password. – Brythan Oct 06 '17 at 00:28