Consumer complaint received 2023-08-10
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: AZ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem making or receiving payments

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I was defrauded by what I later learned was a scammer claiming to be from XXXX XXXX tech support ( of which I am a member ) who told me that I was the victim of " fraud '' in my prime account and told me they were going to help me stop it. 

They gained access to my phone via XXXXXXXX XXXX  and proceeded to transfer money from my USAA checking account to two different XXXX accounts in two separate transactions for {$1000.00} each. The gentleman from " XXXX '' told me and showed me that he could see future fraudulent charges in my XXXX account and they could be stopped. He said that money was to be taken out of my bank account through XXXX XXXX on several future dates and that he would help me stop those transactions as an XXXX XXXX expert. He accessed my USAA checking account and set up two XXXX transactions he said would counteract the future fraudulent withdrawals. 

Later the next day, before this same " XXXX '' tech was set to call me back again I looked at some of information he provided me to show the supposedly fraudulent upcoming charges and realized that something was off about the situation. I researched the phone number he had called from and learned that it was not connected to XXXX and was connected to a know fraudster. 

At that point, on XX/XX/XXXX I reached out to my bank USAA Federal Savings bank to inform them of the fraud on my account and ask them to stop the upcoming transfers to the fraudster. The XXXX debits were set to come out of my USAA account on XX/XX/XXXX and I hoped that if I informed USAA promptly of the fraud they would be able to either stop the transactions or disable the account so the debits wouldn't go through. At that point, USAA opened some sort of investigation and told me they were working on it. Obviously, they did not attempt to stop the transfers because the XXXX transfers were debited on XX/XX/XXXX and shortly after on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX I received letters from USAA informing me that their investigation was closed and that the corresponding bank would not return the money. Further, on XX/XX/XXXX USAA informed me that my account was now frozen and overdrawn by approximately {$2000.00} and that I needed to replenish those funds with my own money. 

I called USAA back again on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with XXXX in USAA Customer Resolutions who reviewed the situation and told me that I was out of luck as the complaint had been investigated and closed. I then told her that was unsatisfied with this conclusion to the crime against me and she asked " what crime ''? I again advised that a fraud had been committed and that the fraudster had had access to my phone and set up the fraudulent transfers himself and that a crime had been committed. She then told me that the initial investigation hadn't been set up properly and that since it was fraud she now needed to file a " Financial Crimes Form '' and that we would hear back within XXXX business days. On XX/XX/XXXX, When I had not heard within 7 days I followed up again and was told that this new complaint had been closed a day after we filed it without and notice given to me and that a third party had made the determination that this report was part of the same complaint that had been originally filed and told me to pound salt. The USAA rep that I spoke to told me that there was really nothing more he was allowed to do for me and that he had seen many similar cases like this where USAA bank did nothing to resolve any fraudulent transactions for their members when they could have done so. He also said he wouldn't be able to transfer to anyone else that might help within the company as he was not allowed to. 

On another note, the USAA rep informed me that my account was now closed as to any debits but available for deposits only which means that my social security deposit will go to USAA to pay for the fraud. Social Security can not stop the deposit until XXXX and that will be too late. The USAA rep said there was nothing he could do about it. 

I am shocked that this crime was treated so cavalierly by XXXX a company I have had XXXX  year relationship with. I was also disturbed to find out after my call with them that USAA Fed Savings bank is apparently a known bad actor in the banking industry as I found a consent decree field by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network which fined USAA {$140.00} XXXX in XXXX for failure to protect consumer accounts and failure to track fraudulent transactions. I think my experience with them is consistent with what they have already been fined for and is completely unacceptable.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation