Take a look!

If you were a bank, would you cash

these comically altered checks? Mine did.
#FifthThirdAlert #SecureTheVault

By Richard T. Herman, Esq.

March 8, 2024

Due to Fifth Third Bank’s lax security and extreme malfeasance in securing our law
firm’s checking account, thieves were able to easily steal thousands of dollars from our
account.

Refusing to be accountable and take responsibility, Fifth Third is now blaming us, the
customer, for their failure to provide security to our funds.

We have reason to believe that it is doing the same to consumers across the country.

Here is our story.

For over 20 years, the Herman Legal Group has been a customer of Fifth Third Bank.
Until recently, our office was located almost directly across the street from the Downton
Branch. They knew us. We knew them.

Or so we thought.

On February 22, 2024, Fifth Third bank denied the firm’s request for reimbursement for
approximately $7,000 after thieves forged checks with my fake signature, and by
changing the firm's name on our checks to unknown businesses entities.

After providing several notices to Fifth Third that our account was compromised, starting
in June, 2023, and again in December, 2023, it did not freeze or close the account, but
rather it continued to facilitate the check fraud by leaving the vault open, and distributing
our funds to the criminals. In fact, we had already filed a written fraud statement to Fifth
Third in December, 2023 , and it still continued to cash counterfeit checks on our
account in January, 2024.

To help explain how outrageous and indefensible 5th Third's position is, please see the
attached "washed" checks that the criminal submitted and which Fifth Third honored.
While the account number on the altered check is ours, neither the signature nor the
payor's name is ours.

Instead of the Herman Legal Group's name listed in the left hand corner of the check as
the payor/account holder, you will notice a poor forgery, with weird fonts, that identifies
different business entities:

Old Brooklyn Family Tavern (with Broadview rd address)

Harb's Auto Service (with Brunswick address)

Chez Jacqueline Enterprise (with Akron address)

___________

With blatant notice of the alteration of these checks, how can Fifth Third claim that it
exercised ordinary care and good faith as required under Ohio Revised Code Section
1304?

It is claiming that we bear full responsibility for the loss, because we allegedly signed up
for its Positive Pay fraud protection program, and under the program we had a duty
to electronically access our account EVERY DAY to verify each check that is
presented, and notify them immediately of a fraudulent transaction.

First, we were not even aware that we signed up for Positive Pay until February, 2024.

Second, no one from the bank advised us of an alleged duty to monitor our account
DAILY. It appears that not even some of the staff at Fifth Third know of the protocol.

Third, even as the account takeovers continued to occur, first in June, 2023, then in
December, 2023, and again in January, 2024, at no time did the bank inform us that we
should have been checking our account daily as allegedly required by its Positive Pay
program (or risk being denied reimbursement).

In fact, the standard of care for the bank should have been to immediately freeze and
ultimately close the account once the first account breach occurred.

Banks like 5th Third attempt to leverage the language of the UCC (which is incorporated
in most state's commercial law) that allows banks to alter the default language of the
UCC that places full responsibility of loss due to check fraud on the bank (absent
wrongdoing or negligence by the consumer). By luring the customers to sign up for
services that entail small print restrictions on this UCC protection, and without providing
full notice to the consumer of its ramifications, the big banks are essentially transferring
the cost of their malfeasance to their customers.
If you are an account holder at Fifth Third, I would strongly recommend you assess the
security of your funds, and evaluate the security benefits and customer service offered
by other banks.

Richard T. Herman, Esq.

1-800-808-4013; 1-216-696-6170
Visit Us At: Herman Legal Group, LLC

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