Hundreds in the Sandhills region victim of fraudulent bank accounts

It was standing room only at the Aberdeen Rec center Friday. Hundreds of people from different towns, with different occupations or plans all with the same problem: their information was stolen and used to open banking accounts with TD Bank.

The nearest TD Bank is 100 miles away in South Carolina, so when countless residents in the Sandhills region got mailers about the accounts, they were shocked and they want answers.

Ann Fisher received hers earlier this month.

"It had no letter with it, it just had checks and of course I thought that was strange because I had never applied for any for checking account," said Fisher. "It had your name and address."

Fisher was one of more than 1,000 people, according to estimates from the Moore County Sheriff’s Office, who had this happen to them.

Many victims, like Fisher, were fired up at Friday's meeting.

The FBI, law enforcement, and state lawmakers including State Senator Thomas McInnis who represents the area were on hand to answer questions.

"We think that some organization was hacked, that the addresses and all the information went onto the dark web," explained McInnis. "Another organization picked it up or bought it and started opening up these accounts."

TD Bank told victims like Bill Scott that they've closed his account.

"What I actually did was get my own credit monitoring at this point because I'm worried," said Scott.

So far, no one has lost any money of their own, but some of the accounts have overdraft fees associated with it.

"That has a very, very high potential to do damage to her credit rating. We can’t have our folks be suffering and have a damaged credit rating because of some stupid hack that’s going on at a bank or something else like that," said McInnis

"TD takes its responsibility seriously to help protect consumers' personal information. We follow industry-best practices designed to detect and help prevent fraud. We appreciate the role of law enforcement and elected officials in bringing the issues of fraud and scams to the attention of North Carolina residents," said TD Bank in a statement Friday.

If you think you're a victim of this scam, call this designated hotline for TD Bank at 877-836-6688 and file a police report. The FBI called this a widespread fraud and said multiple people and groups are likely responsible.

McInnis told WRAL News that TD Bank has promised all of their victims a year of credit protection. So if you receive a mailer, you'll also get a letter in the mail explaining how to establish that.