Consumer complaint received 2023-12-02
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I received a letter sent by a XXXX lawyer named XXXX XXXX stating that through XXXX XXXX in XXXX, he located me as XXXX of XXXX of his client XXXX XXXX XXXX who died from XXXX in XXXX without a Will but left a XXXX  account with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX He offered to make me the XXXX on XXXX XXXX 's account through legal procedure before the balance was being surrendered to the government abandoned property department on XXXX, XXXX, in exchange for his share plus donating XXXX XXXX to charity in memory of XXXX XXXX XXXX He also sent me the XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX certificate matching the balance. Prior to death, my grandfather mentioned he had a brother go to the XXXX before losing the contact, plus the decedent shared the same surname and nationality as well as the age would correspond to my XXXX cousin, supported by XXXX-issued XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX with Case # XXXX presented by the lawyer, so I believed. Before transferring the estate, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, Branch Supervisor XXXX XXXX and the lawyer asked me to pay USD XXXX to their XXXX company " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' in XXXX with a XXXX account " for both parties ' security '', and promised me the XXXX fund would be returned to me after the XXXX-transfer was completed because " XXXX law and court mandate that estate be kept with integrity, whereby the XXXX fund can't be deducted from. '' I was given the XXXX company 's bank account details as below : Bank Name : XXXX Add. : XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX Account Number : XXXXXXXX XXXX Routing Number : XXXX XXXX only : XXXX XXXX  : XXXX Beneficiary Name : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX  XXXX Phone # : XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX Before XXXX I called the above number, specifically asking the XXXX if they were an XXXX company working with the XXXX bank, and he confirmed " the XXXX fund will be returned to you after the XXXX transfer is completed. There's nothing to worry about. '' So I presented my bank Synchrony Bank with the above XXXX transfer details specifically naming the " XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ''. Despite that Synchrony Bank has XXXX transfer verification mechanism, the XXXX Transfer Department negligently failed to verify the receiving bank account not to be an XXXX or XXXX account, or at least the business " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' doesn't exist at all, and debited XXXX from my account on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. XXXX days after, I didn't hear back from any of the XXXX and XXXX parties. So I called XXXX Customer Service to report this XXXX  fraud. A representative answered, unable to reveal an account holder 's identity for privacy, but repeatedly verified that the account holder who received the XXXX belonged to an individual, not an XXXX or business account at all. The company XXXX XXXX XXXX doesn't exist. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX also verified the lawyer and his law firm were fake, and the XXXX XXXX was fake, too. It's all fraud. I immediately notified my bank Synchrony Bank of this XXXX fraud on XXXX XXXX, XXXX and filed a XXXX XXXX Case # XXXX with my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Department which was shared with Synchrony Bank. From the very beginning, Synchrony Bank has been very elusive and discouraging to me with regard to their so-called investigation : XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX from XXXX Team called me trying to push me over to XXXX, then backed off after I told him that I had already contacted XXXX Customer Service of a scammer account holder, but they can't assist me as I'm not their customer. XXXX concluded the conversation by saying 'There 's no guarantee we can solve this and get your money back. '' without even giving me a case # or line of communication. And that was the only time somebody from Synchrony Bank has ever reached out to me regarding this XXXX fraud even though Law requires a timeline for the financial institution to update their customer about the status of their investigation into a fraud or scam. From XXXX XXXX through XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I called Synchrony Bank Customer Service XXXX times inquiring about the status of their investigation, always being told " still going on '' by the representative instead of directly someone from the XXXX XXXX actually conducting the investigation. XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I called Synchrony Bank Customer Service again as that's the only way you can reach them. When I questioned why the fraudsters still contacted me XXXX  days after I reported this XXXX fraud with the same XXXX account details and same fraudulent business name if Synchrony Bank had contacted XXXX XXXX day when I reported this fraud, and expressed my serious doubt if Synchrony Bank had even really been investigating and tried to retrieve my funds from the fraudulent XXXX account holder, Account Supervisor XXXX repeatedly strong-armed me by asking me to 'understand " that it's my fault ( to be defrauded ) and then asked me to go ahead suing Synchrony Bank because its Policy prevents them from doing anything to help me. Synchrony Bank 's gross negligence, failure on control measures and compliance law, and non-existing customer support are abetting scammers and fraudsters roaming freely to harm law-abiding people!

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