Consumer complaint received 2021-10-19
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NJ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
In mid XX/XX/ XXXX a business checkIng account was opened fraudulently at Truist Bank. The person ( or persons ) who opened this account used the name of my late fathers business, which has not existed for over 10 years. The address used was my former residence which is not even in the same state where the business was. My name and social security was used. As I learned later, they had my date of birth wrong and used a phone number that was never mine. 

I reported this, or attempted to do so as soon I learned of this issue. I was alerted to the problem when I received a packet of information about my new account including signature cards. ( This was forwarded to me at my current address ). Despite several attempts to speak with someone who could be of help with this matter, all I could access were computers and was not able to speak with a human being. 

I filed a police report with the township police department which is currently on file there. I also have a copy. 

I do have a business rep at Truist. While this matter is clearly not in his job description, at least I knew he would speak with me. He told me he would assist me in clearing this up. I was able to ascertain that the fraudsters took the money out of the account they opened via XXXX and before it was posted, they somehow managed to remove the same money again. ( It was {$200.00} ) About 2 weeks after that, I received a note from Truist informing me that the account was overdrawn and that I must make good on it or the issue would be sent to collections. At the end of the note was the phone number for a branch of the bank ( XXXX, NJ ). I called the number. After asking for the manager, a woman named XXXX got on the phone. She informed me that she knew nothing about this matter but, she would look into it and call back later that day. She also said that the bank randomly puts branch phone numbers on letters. Made no sense. At any rate, this transpired on XX/XX/XXXX and no one returned my call. 

I called my business rep again and reported this latest development. I sent the police report to him and he said he would help me. 

On the XXXX of XXXX, my bank rep informed me that the account was closed there would be no collection attempts and no credit bureau reporting. The bank acknowledged the account was a fraud. He sent me an e-mail confirming this. 

Yesterday we received another threatening letter from Truist. Same thing all over again. This letter was dated XX/XX/. This letter contained the phone number of their overdraft department. I called. I was transferred to the Fraud department where I was on hold for over an hour only to learn that they can not help me end this matter. They did tell me some of the details of how this happened in the first place. The account was opened on-line and apparently there was zero security or vetting of the information these fraudsters provided. I was told to call the charge-off department. 

I did so. There I learned they can not help me with this. They told me that I needed to speak with the fraud department. The left hand does not know what the right one is doing at this bank. This rep, XXXX, did say that the account was marked as fraud. She also said that the bank did report this as fraud to the credit bureaus but suggested I do likewise. I decided to call them back and ask when these threatening letters would stop and who could make that happen. I got a XXXX on the phone. She said this was not something their department does and said I needed to speak with a supervisor. She could not look anything up nor do anything to assist me. I waited over 35 minutes when the line disconnected. I got nowhere. 

I did contact the credit bureaus and learned that Truist DID NOT report this account as fraud as they said they did. I did so myself. I do not like to be lied to on top of everything else that this institution has put me through. 

This matter should have been resolved weeks ago. I did my part in contacting them as soon as I knew that there was a problem ( though that was a project in itself ). I am tired of being given the run-around and having spend copious amounts of time dealing with this. Had Truist done their job properly, this account would never have been able to be opened.

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