Consumer complaint received 2023-11-20
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NC
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I, XXXX XXXX, a resident of XXXX XXXX, North Carolina, and a XXXX at XXXX XXXX, living with my wife and XXXX baby. I am scammed for {$45000.00} during my house closing process via wire transfer scam. I filed a complaint immediately with XXXX XXXX XXXX [ bank i used to transfer money from ] to put a request to Truist bank [ bank where i sent the money to ] to recover the scammed amount but the Truist bank did not responded with any specific details to XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and so XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX closed my case. when i reached the local truist bank branch office and shared the account details they mentioned that the account was flagged as fraud and is under investigation but is not willing to return money even if the case is 90 days old. 

Below is the full story. 

We had purchased a new home and were working with a lender for my loan approval. The closing date was scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX, and the loan was expected to be disbursed on that day. On the morning of XX/XX/XXXX, I had signed a bunch of documents on the " XXXX XXXX XXXX  '' website as part of the loan approval process. 

On XX/XX/2023, I completed signing all the documents around XXXX XXXX The title attorney informed me that I should expect an email from the title attorney with details of the wire transfer regarding the closing costs. At XXXXXXXX XXXX  EST on XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' with the following message : Hello XXXX, Congratulations on the final steps of your purchase of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, NC Your closing has been scheduled and will be coordinated XX/XX/2023. You need to have Cash to close funds wired to our trust account today to avoid closing delay. I will send the wire instructions once you have acknowledged the receipt of this email. I will be busy with limited access to my phone. You can send me an email if you need anything else. 
Please note : You will need a valid photo ID or any form of ID at closing. 

After acknowledging the email, they sent a reply with the details of the wire transfer. The email contained the following business account information : " XXXX XXXX, XXXX '', XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, VA XXXX and the Bank account number is # XXXX. I was asked to send a similar amount of money mentioned in my closing documents which i did. 

I began to suspect that someone from the lender, the business that approved the loan for my house, had been tracking me and sent the email exactly when I was expecting it ( XXXX minutes after I signed all closing documents ). As I was multitasking with office work, I did not pay attention to the origination of the email. They had also CCed my real estate agent 's modified ID ( email ID very close to his original email but with a few characters changed ). 

After an hour of the transfer, I received an email from the correct attorney asking for the money. It was at this point that I realized I had been scammed.

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