Consumer complaint received 2023-04-25
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: MO
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
In the middle of XXXX, 2023, 5 charges from my checking account were disputed as fraud. At the same time, I was attempting to secure a loan with an outside company. So, there were two things going on simultaneously. I did not learn of the 5 charges in question until a couple of weeks after the fact when someone from the bank called and had me transferred to the fraud department. There, the employee asked me a couple of questions about my account and it was then that I was alerted to the proposed fraud charges. Meanwhile, I was offered a loan with XXXX XXXX. I checked with the XXXX XXXX XXXX and the company checked out. We discussed the terms, and I agreed with everything, so the process began. I was told we would be able to close the loan the first week of XXXX. The last day of XXXX, I believe it was the XXXX, I received a phone call from the bank asking me about 2 of the charges. I went to the bank to get a print out of my account, ( the bank had put a block on my online banking ), and I was able to confirm that the 2 charges she mentioned were legitimate charges. Then, on the morning of XX/XX/XXXX, the bank once again called me about the other three charges. I was able to confirm that they were legitimate as well. During this entire process, I couldn't understand why the bank had picked these 5 charges as possible fraud. It was never explained to me. On this same day, the lender contacted me and said that we would be able to close the loan that afternoon. However, they were going to send a few deposits to my account to confirm that it was truly my account and I would then have to return that money to the lender. I have done this in the past, so this seemed normal to me. However, the loan officer said that they would be sending several deposits, totaling {$1400.00}. I was very shocked at this amount. He explained to me that this was a way for them to gain trust in the client and vice versa. So, I again went to the bank and asked the teller to check my account and see if any deposits had come through. She was able to verify that 5 deposits had been received that day, totaling {$1400.00}. So I called the lender, confirmed receipt of the deposits, and was given instructions as to what I needed to do to return the money. I was to withdraw the cash and take it to Customer Service at XXXX XXXX He said that they work with them all the time and that they knew what to do. He was going to send me a code and I was to show it to the Customer Service Manager. This sounded a bit unorthodox to me ; however, if XXXX is involved, then it must be legit, right? So, I withdrew the cash and followed his instructions. I was somewhat surprised when the Manager explained that they work with the code all of the time. So I gave her the cash and she then sent it back to the lender. The lender called me and confirmed that they had received the money and that he would get back with me in a couple of hours and we would close on the loan. I never heard from them again. Two days later, XX/XX/XXXX, I received in the mail 5 letters from the bank, one for each of the charges. The letters stated that due to these fraudulent charges, the bank was going to reimburse me and make 5 provisional deposits into my account. First, I never heard of a provisional deposit. I didn't know what that was. And second, why is the bank issuing me a refund for these charges as I had already confirmed with them that these were valid charges and not fraudulent. So, I began investigating. As things began to make themselves clear, it turned out that in XXXX when the disputes were first filed, it was a group of fraudsters ( herein referred to as the " group '' ), that filed these charges. The bank believed it to be me. So for some time, this group was impersonating me with the bank and as we continued to learn, the XXXX XXXX XXXX was being impersonated as well. They were one in the same ; the group that was dealing with the bank and the group that was pretending to be a loan company. And the 5 deposits that were made were deposits that I believed had been made by the loan company, or group. But unfortunately, the group had never made any deposits. So the money that I withdrew and sent to the group was actually the bank 's money. And then several days later, I began receiving letters from the bank stating that because the 5 charges in question were deemed to be valid, they would begin reversing the credits from my account. After a few days, my account showed a deficit of {$1400.00}. So the bank got their money back and I was sitting on an account that was in the red, an account that the bank expected me to bring to a XXXX balance. I disagree with the bank and do not feel that I owe this money. While it is true that I withdrew the funds, it was done so in good faith and with the belief that I was working with a legitimate loan company. A couple of areas that I think the bank failed in : One, what protocol does the bank have in place to protect the customer 's accounts and to verify that they are dealing with the right person? For the first couple of weeks, the group was able to get the ball rolling because the bank believed it to be me. Had the bank had stricter policies when it came to verifying a customer or had they not failed when following the bank 's directives, they would have learned early on that it was not me, the account holder, they were dealing with and perhaps none of this mess would have occurred. Two, why were provisional deposits made into my account after I had confirmed that the charges were valid? And third, why did the bank not notify me immediately when they made the deposits? As an account holder, unless it is a bank fee or interest earned, I can not think of any reason that a bank would make transactions into someone's account without notifying them at the same time as making the transactions. The bank 's answer to this is that they did notify me. True, they did. Via 5 letters that I received two days after the fact. What good does it do to alert me to those deposits days after they were made? By then, anything could happen, and it did. When the teller told me of the deposits that had been made that day, I had absolutely no reason to believe that someone else could be making them. Had the bank called me that morning to tell me what they were doing, all of this could have been prevented. I believe this was true negligence on the part of the bank and i disagree with their decision that I owed the {$1400.00}. On XX/XX/XXXX, I began calling the bank and looking for answers. From that point on until XX/XX/XXXX, I spent endless, endless hours on the phone, speaking with over 7 departments at the bank, trying to find out what had happened with the fraud deal and who was overseeing my case. I was shuffled around from department to department, with no one claiming responsibility for what happened, Each department said that I needed to speak with such and such department, and all I did was go in circles. I ended up speaking with all departments multiple times, learning absolutely nothing. And on two phone calls, I was treated with such rudeness, that I was rendered speechless. On one of those occasions, the Specialist in the E-Fraud department that I spoke with, stopped me half way into explaining what happened and said, " XXXX XXXX, please stop wasting my time. I am a very busy man ''. With customer service like that, why would I go anyplace else? Anyway, since this entire process began, no one from the bank has reached out to me to discuss the case. No one is accepting responsibility for any of the bank 's doing and no one is accepting responsibility for making any decisions. No one has responded to any of the voicemails that I have left, or messages I have left with someone in various departments. This has been an extremely stressful burden for the last month and a half. I am left to believe that if I do not bring my account up to XXXX, that in 39 days ( from the date the deposits were made, I guess ), that the account will close, it will be reported to collections, and my credit will get hit. This would not be a good thing as I am trying desperately to repair my credit. Plus, I don't believe my involvement in all of this warrants me paying a price for something that could have been prevented on a couple of occasions had the bank communicated with me. And not that I like to play this card, but I am sick. I suffer from XXXX and I require XXXX XXXXt 3 times a week. It's a very tiresome and grueling way to live and a lot of extra stress makes me weaker and more sick. I can not continue with the phone calls anymore as the last one went from bad to worse as the woman I spoke with in the fraud department claimed that they didn't even know that a fraudster was involved until XX/XX/XXXX. This does not fit the timeline in any way. In addition, she said that I knew that the case was closed because it said so in her notes. I was never told this. And she stated that I was liable for the money because I withdrew those funds myself and as far as they knew, I was taking that money to have fun with, or who knows. She obviously had not read the notes because she did not know what she was talking about. Plus, at the end of our 20 minute conversation, she said I really needed to speak with Card Member Services. I think that sums everything up. So now, the next step is for me to obtain legal council and to learn what my options are. I am not interested in pursuing any monetary gain for my time and stress. All I want is for the bank to zero out my account. I believe this to be the correct thing to happen and I will not stop until I at least get to have a conversation with someone from the bank that is in charge.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation