Consumer complaint received 2023-10-26
Company: HUNTINGTON NATIONAL BANK, THE
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I was recently hired by a company called XXXX XXXX XXXX for their remote data entry job. The company emailed me XXXX XXXX for getting the equipment to set up the miniature office for the job. The job interviewer who orchestrated this was XXXX XXXX. She told me to deposit the checks into my bank and send the money over to the vendors so they can purchase the equipment and send them to me. All of our interactions were through the app XXXX Teams. The company found my resume on the job site Indeed and contacted me via messages on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX. The person who messaged me was another job interviewer named XXXX XXXX. I began to start messaging XXXX XXXX and she conducted an interview with me that same day, and later on, she said I got the job. She sent me the first check on that day for the amount of {$4900.00}. XXXX told me to send the money to the vendors named XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX, as well as the company XXXX XXXX XXXX. The first check was deposited and money was sent over, then another check was sent for the same amount and she told me to do the same process. It was then that my bank, Huntington Bank, locked my account because of suspicious activity. This happened on Wednesday and Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX. I looked at my bank account and it was in the negatives, as well as my savings and checking accounts being affected as well. My checking account had a balance of {>= $1,000,000} at the start of Wednesday and then the amount was dropping down to the balance of {$550.00}. My savings were affected as well. I counted my bank and they said the checks I deposited were fraudulent once they figured it out by the second check deposited. As a result of that, they suspended my debit card and froze my account. My account had an outstanding balance of - {$9800.00}. This is when I realized I was scammed by the company I thought I was hired by. So I was in contact with Huntington Bank to launch a fraud case to get this situation resolved. They said they had seen this before so they will dispute all the charges to get my accounts back to the original balance. I also gave them all the information I had on the company as well as the contact numbers of people that fraud me. They said the investigation would be open for several days and said I should see some results from it. I was watching my account throughout the week and noticed my savings went back to their normal balance as well as my savings, but the third account was still at that outstanding balance. On Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX, I called Huntington to check on the fraud case and they said that my accounts are due to foreclosure and my relationship with the bank will be ending. I asked them will I be able to get my money back and they said they were unsure. So they referred me to a fraud specialist and they said once all the charges were disputed, they would send me a check for the funds that were owed to me then the bank accounts would be closed. I said that was fine since I am not comfortable putting money in those accounts anymore. The following Sunday night, I noticed that the money in my checking and savings account were gone. So that Monday morning, I noticed that Huntington did a bank adjustment, something I never heard of, and used my money to cover some of the negative balance, which I never authorized also, they knew that the account was a fraud but used my money anyway. I contacted them on that day and they said they had to do it to cover some of the negative balance, in doing so, I would not be getting my money back and then they said the foreclosure of my accounts was determined uncertain even though they said specifically they will be foreclosing all of my accounts. So, there was a lot of back and forth going on with Huntington which left me in a state of confusion.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation