Chase Bank (WAMU ) on June 5th 2009 had a levy from the IRS for my mother whom I have a joint bank acct with due to her needing my assistance in paying her bills, she is 92 yrs of age . I also have my own individual bank acct there too and they also froze my checking acct funds on that day . Upon finding this out I phoned our tax attorney who represents my mother and they said that the bank cannot freeze my own funds, so Iwent down to my branch and discussed this issue with them, the teller I dealt with had to make many phone calls back and forth to coroporate etc and then finally realizing that what they did was not correct, they released my personal acct . So things went well for the next 30 days . Then on July 3rd, my acct was froze again and when I went to the back, I was overdrawn $16, 000.00 dollars for they had issued a check payable to the IRS and sent $54, 000.00 to them . Note I only had in my acct at that time was $34, 000.00 You have no idea the nightmare I have been living since this incident has occured. They did in fact place a call to the IRS when i was at the bank and spoke to a person (probably sitting in a cubicle ) and that person said of course they can take money out of the acct as long as the soc sec numbers match . Of course they match my soc sec # is on my mothers joint act I have with her and it was a interest bearing acct and that is how the IRS obtained my SS# and the Notce to Levy has my SS#, though it is not my TAX issue it does not matter . After weeks going by we are sueing the bank . If they would have kept the FREEZE on my personal acct, our tax attorney then would have applied for a release of the levy . But since Chase lifted the freeze there was no need to pursue the latter. With no correspondence what so ever, they just took the funds and sent it to the IRS as remember, they have to do whatever the IRS says . Of course after many calls, Chase admitted verbally that they made a mistake and the levy should have remained in force . They will not issue us a letter admitting to the mistake . So now we are having a banking advocacy work with us to help us getting our money back. This $16, 000 negative with Chase is now going to affect my credit history . There is a lesson to learn . If you have a joint acct with family member and if your own personal acct is at the same bank, make sure the family member is clear of owing any money to any Tax officials, or else your funds could be at risk. We now keep just enough money in the bank to pay our monthly expenses and let me tell you lastly, it did not seem to bother them one bit nor were they understanding in the matter .