Consumer complaint received 2018-02-10
Company: SOUTHSTATE BANK, N.A. - 520 GERVAIS STREET BRANCH
State: SC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
There was an unauthorized charge of {$880.00} to XXXX XXXX on my XXXX XXXX XXXX  debit card on XX/XX/XXXX. I caught it on XX/XX/XXXX when it was " pending. '' I went to the bank and reported it. The bank employee completed a form and forwarded it to the bank 's corporate office. I contacted XXXX and they told me a new account was created with what appeared to be a fictitious name ( " XXXX '' ) right before the charge was made. The person linked my debit card as his form of payment. He did not need the XXXX number on the back, only the number and expiration. Since I caught it so early, the item had not been shipped. They told me the item was going to be shipped to North Carolina. The only person I could imagine who could have had access to my debit card number and expiration date was a man who worked on my house as a handyman. My best guess is that he got into my purse and obtained the card number and expiration date. ( Ironically, this was the same payment method I used for my XXXX account, but there is no verification process when that happens at XXXX. ) He had worked on my house on and off for about a year and a half and I had not had reason to distrust him. But, in XXXX he started acting differently and his workmanship declined. He became increasingly angry and volatile and it was making me uneasy. ( I'm a single mom with a teenage daughter. ) In XXXX, I fired him. He went ballistic. Then he moved from South Carolina to North Carolina, taking a number of items from my garage with him. I believe he had developed a drug problem. He lost a lot of weight, looked ill and seemed very agitated. My best guess would be he started taking XXXX or something like it and became addicted in the months before I fired him. I was afraid of further contact with him. 

After I reported it to South State Bank, suspecting it was him, I looked at my XXXX and sure enough he had used that card to pay for his car insurance. So, I kept contacting South State Bank telling them I felt sure I knew who it was and could provide more information to them. They would never let me speak to anyone in the fraud department. No one ever contacted me from the fraud department. I finally asked for a statement of what was done, discovered, etc. by the fraud department and there was nothing. They sent me a copy of the form the branch employee filed on XX/XX/XXXX. I do not believe they did anything to investigate this. I think their fraud department may not even exist. 

XXXX did refund the money, cancel the transaction and close the fake account based on my report to them. Since the item had not been shipped, it was fairly uncomplicated in that regard. I do not believe South State Bank made any attempt to contact XXXX. 

My complaint is that my bank literally did nothing to investigate reported fraud, despite my repeated appeals for them to do so and the branch employee 's assurances that they would. There was vague statement about " XXXX never giving us any information '' which I know to be a lie. XXXX does cooperate fully with bank fraud departments. They tried to shift the onus to the police, but without them providing any information for me to show police, I knew they wouldn't provide any information to the police either. They had never tried to obtain any information about the charge at all. There was no investigation number or contact person or phone number. As I said, I do not believe South State Bank has a legitimate fraud investigation department, though they are required to. I was not willing to go to the police and accuse the handyman of theft without a report of their investigation. That would have put my daughter and myself in danger. 

This is truly wrong. It is their obligation to investigate fraud against their customer competently and thoroughly. By not doing so, they are directly allowing criminal activity to flourish. I think it's disgraceful and likely a violation of banking regulations, such as Regulation E, the Fair Credit Billing Act, etc. 

Please do something to make them so what is expected of a bank. They are clearly part of the problem that has allowed credit and debit card fraud to increase exponentially over the last few years.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation