Consumer complaint received 2019-04-02
Company: NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: WA
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:
XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Navy Federal Credit Union, N.A. 
Account # : XXXX Dear CFPB, I am writing you today in hopes that you can help investigate and resolve this matter for me with Navy Federal Credit Union. As a XXXX, I loved having a secure military bank with friendly XXXX XXXX service members handling my funds and veterans benefits. OR so I thought. To my dismay, there was severe fraudulent activity on my bank account from XXXX onwards in XXXX. As someone who is away from home for long periods of time on military deployments, I have little to no resources to make phone calls, nor check the internet. Furthermore, I dont come home for months at a time and am unable to see my statements until I arrive back. 

As soon as I caught wind of the fact that my account had been compromised I IMMEDIATELY notified Navy Federal of what had transpired. They promised to do all they could to recover the funds for me, and I spent hours on the phone going over each transaction. One of the major things that occurred were ATM transactions as well as debit card and ACH transactions. I have had severe identity theft since XXXX, and have multiple fraud alerts in place by the three credit bureaus. 

Navy Federal ended up deciding that there was no fraud found despite not even trying to track down the IP addresses, the merchants receipts, videos, etc. I asked them to reopen the case and they said that my initial identity theft report was not sufficient enough for them to refund the money. Seriously? I spoke to fraud representatives who PROMISED to return the money to me but that they needed a SEPARATE police report detailing the new fraudulent activity that occurred on the Navy Federal account. I went into the police station to file an updated police report giving them the transactions that had been posted to my account as well as the previous police report. The detective said why do you need a new police report? This previous police report should be sufficient for them for identity theft. I asked the detective and officer to please do as Navy Federal asked and they said if Navy Federal had any further issues to contact them. 

So I sent in the new police report to Navy Federal and waited. It took months and they didnt even respond. I lived very far from the nearest Navy Federal branch and therefore, I had to drive an hour out of my way while in California to the closest Navy Federal Branch. I finally went in to the Navy Federal Branch in XXXX XXXX, XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX and I sat down for nearly two hours with a personal banker by the name of XXXX XXXX. Ms. XXXX apologized profusely for what my family and I had to endure and was upset that Navy Federal was promising to return my money yet not properly resolving it. Ms. XXXX tried contacting headquarters in XXXX, and they gave her the run around as they did me. Everyone at Navy Federal seemed lost as to the status of the case or what to do. 

Ms. XXXX told me that we need to file a new identity theft report case with Navy Federal and we took time to literally highlight EVERY single transaction that was fraudulent. Once that was completed, she typed up a new case and told me that she would personally take care of this matter for me. She faxed in the two police reports, statements and transactions, yet nothing really happened. This created an enormous financial hardship for myself and my family as we were unable to pay bills due to the amount of fraud that was taken out of the account. There were conflicting statements from investigators, for example, who denied the refunding of a {$600.00} ACH transaction to XXXX  saying that they had proof from the merchant that this was authorized. Funny because I reached out to that same merchant ( XXXX ), filed an identity theft report and they responded with a letter in the mail saying we are sorry. We have investigated and determined that this was a fraudulent account and you are not responsible for it. I gave that to Navy Federal who STILL refused to return the money. 

Ms. XXXX claimed over the coming months that the identity theft report takes a long time to process and kept urging me to follow up if I didnt see temporary or provisional credit within the coming weeks. After a while, Ms. XXXX just stopped responding to all emails. When I was back in XXXX  in XX/XX/XXXX, I walked into a branch in XXXX XXXX, XXXX and met with another banker by the name of XXXX. XXXX tried looking into it, and called the investigators who were lost once again and no one could find the case. Everything is there and I can pull it up relatively easy in my online banking. I sent XXXX the details again, and the investigator assigned to my case, who was supposed to reach out to me, never reached out to me simply because they didnt feel like it. They didnt want to bother with me. Then I asked her to reach Ms. XXXX XXXX and ask her why she stopped responding and she told me she was annoyed and said that headquarters didnt want to investigate any longer or bother with the case. Case closed. Thats what the banker said! Why did no one update me? I wasnt getting mail that they said they were sending! These people are not doing their due diligence, protecting my money and dont even attempt to retrieve the funds! They only determined that some portions were fraudulent and didnt even bother with the lost debit card claims! 

While I was in both branches I literally saw on two separate cases customers bringing in small claims lawsuits against Navy Federal and now I see why! Horrible customer service and the way they treat their customers and make their lives miserable are unacceptable. I filed my own small claims case against Navy Federal last week for {$10000.00} and had the documents served on the XXXX XXXX branch as well as certified mail to Navy Federal headquarters. 

Its a violation of federal and SCRA Benefits and protections I am requesting that the CFPB please investigate this matter so it doesnt happen to other service members. 

Thank you. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

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