I Have A Fraud Problem
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?
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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.
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).
Okay bad decisions, time to move on:
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.
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.
Consider that 00 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.
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