Consumer complaint received 2022-10-13
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: CO
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
XX/XX/2021 RE : Charged Off - Overdraft Account Number ( s ) ending XXXX This is an email I received from Ally Bank due to them handling a " Fraudulent Activity '' case inappropriately. 

XXXX XXXX, We've closed your Ally Bank account ( s ) due to an unresolved overdraft ( s ) totaling {$96000.00} XX/XX/2021 I was contacted by Ally regarding a Joint Account I held with them which had been flagged with fraudulent activity. My grandmother was on the joint account with me because she requested I invest XXXX  XXXX of her money in bitcoin. I proceeded with her request and set everything up accordingly. About a month XXXX after investing her money, she went to her bank XXXX XXXX and claimed that she didnt know about any of these transfers and was a victim of identity theft. Both XXXX XXXX and Ally contacted me to investigate and regardless of the evidence I submitted to Ally confirming her full participation and acknowledgment of her investment, they continued to mark the account as fraud and closed it leaving me with a negative balance of {$110000.00}. In order to offset this negative balance, Ally then depleted my personal account in the amount of {$13000.00} and has informed me of a balance due to them in the amount of {$96000.00} which they charged off not even a month after the investigation. XXXX XXXX received my evidence and I was never contacted by them again because they saw that my grandmother was fully aware of her investments. 

Here is an email thread I had with Ally during the investigation : XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to losspreventioninvestigators Hello XXXX, I hope all is well and that you've had some luck getting in touch with my grandma. I left her number when I called into Ally yesterday. 

I also submitted a request that my personal account get unlocked because I have bills to pay and medications I need to take and be able to pay for. 

As you know, I have been cooperative with Ally and have submitted evidence showing my grandma was fully aware of the withdrawals. I understand we are at a standstill until you speak with her but unfortunately I have obligations to take care of. 

With that being said, how can we resolve this? 

On XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX   wrote : Hello XXXX. 

I've attached the text thread with the conversation I had with my aunt ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ; her contact info is saved as XXXX XXXX XXXX in my phone because that's her nick name. As you can see ... her number is XXXX My grandmother was well aware of the XXXX XXXX investment. I created an Ally account because it's the bank I personally use and in order to buy cryptocurrency any money going in must come from the account holders name. Due to this, the only way to transfer funds was from my joint account with XXXX XXXX XXXX my personal account. 

I even went to the bank with my grandmother XX/XX/2021 because she wanted to take XXXX out to play with at the XXXX. They printed out her account balance that day as well. 

My grandmother is clearly not in the right state of mind and my aunt is helping her fabricate a story that paints her as a victim so that she can recuperate her funds for the investment. I have no problem giving my grandmother her money but I will need some time so I'm not selling it at a loss. I never did any of this for my own sake, this was a favor my grandma asked me to do for her because she gambles a lot and wanted to make money. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions. 

Thank you for your help, XXXX.

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