Georgia bank employee breaks bank policy to inform Sun City man of fraud attempt

A Sun City man got a surprising call last week when a Georgia bank employee told him someone had attempted to withdraw money from his account at a bank four hours away.

An unknown suspect, with a fake ID using the name of the Sun City man, walked into a Truist Bank in McDonough, GA and attempted to make a “large withdrawal” from his account. McDonough is a small city in the Atlanta metro area.

Truist Bank’s policy in these situations is not to contact law enforcement and to simply turn away the person attempting to use the fake ID, according to Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Master Sgt. Danny Allen. However, the employee who informed the Sun City man of the scam decided to go outside of the policy and inform him during their lunch break on July 10, Allen said.

The bank refused the suspect any money, so no money was taken out of the Sun City man’s account.

The fake ID had a photo of the unknown suspect and a signature and home address that differed from the Sun City man’s ID. Notably, the fake ID did have the correct license number.

Allen said it’s hard to determine where exactly the suspect would have gotten the information, mentioning many sources including the ever-common mass data breaches. Scams like these are common, with bad actors typically using banks far away from where their victims live.

While the report was filed with Beaufort County, any investigation would fall to local officials in McDonough, who likely were not contacted because of Truist’s policy.

Allen said it’s best to regularly monitor bank accounts for any strange transactions.