Consumer complaint received 2023-09-03
Company: PNC Bank N.A.
State: MD
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
XXXX XXXX : This guy stole pics from a real military officer. Even had a fake military ID saying his name is XXXX XXXX XXXX ( I know I kept saying that name sounds weird ). Did a reverse image search after talking for a few weeks and found the real guy. Told the real guy and sent him the page but he says XXXX isnt doing anything to stop this. The scammer is using this email : XXXX  - XXXX ; XXXX - XXXX XXXX : XXXX XXXX He didnt take any of my money ( I told him I didnt have much money in the very beginning. I figured if hes a scammer thatll be the end of our communication ). Instead, he had other people ( said his colleagues would send me money on XXXX XXXX and XXXX to help him out while he was XXXX to the XXXX ), then asked me to send him that money to his bitcoin. After a while, he started telling me to keep the money and do something nice for myself ( I was sent {$2800.00} to be exact between XXXX XXXX and XXXX. He bought me a ring and told me to keep ( {$100.00} ) and also keep some for my nails and pedicure ( {$100.00} ). When the money wouldnt stop coming in ( in one day XX/XX/26 I received 8 XXXX payments ). Told him I was uncomfortable accepting so much money and could he tell his colleagues to stop then opted out of XXXX. On the XXXX, I opted back into XXXX. But I received 7 more XXXX payments that day ( some sent payments more than once like a lady named XXXX XXXX sent me two different payments so some of these are from the same people just different transactions ). I told him I asked you to stop so Ill close the account for good now. He said he knew these people, but it was so many of them it just didnt feel right. 

On the XXXX I received only one XXXX ( {$100.00} ) payment and a request for a refund from someone that sent me {$200.00}. Her name was XXXX XXXX. She was requesting me send her back {$250.00} which was odd because where did the extra {$50.00} come from? I sent back the {$50.00}, and told her to never send money to my XXXX again. She sent me an email stating she was scammed from a XXXX marketplace ad. I asked her how did she get my XXXX? She stated she sent the money for a deposit fee on an apartment. I asked her to send me the ad in which she did. Told her I would send her the money back and to never send money for an apartment shes never seen before. She emailed back just send me back {$100.00} you can keep the rest since you didnt know what was going on. Which I also thought was odd because if I sent money and realized it was a scam, I would want all of my money back. So I sent her back in total {$150.00}. Then I get a XXXX payment for {$100.00} from a man named XXXX XXXX. I tried to send the money back, but had no phone number or email for this man. Then I get an email from this XXXX guy that keeps calling me named XXXX XXXX ( heres his number : XXXX and email : XXXX ) saying he wants me to send it back. I told him I did not receive the XXXX from a XXXX XXXX. He said it shouldve came from XXXX XXXX. Told him that XXXX needs to contact me and I would send it back to the sender, not him ( XXXX ). The police told me not to send him ANYTHING and block him which I did. No one else has asked for it back outside of the XXXX girl which the scammer sent me money from his own bitcoin account to pay back to her. Once I confronted him about finding out the ID was fake and he was a catfish and a scammer. I informed him I would be contacting the police. He blocked me from everything. Im emotionally exhausted over this situation and furious. The fact is he stole someones identity and with over XXXX XXXX followers, hes definitely a veteran at it. I spoke to him on the phone when I first became suspicious because I told him yes I could tell it wasnt him - thinking Id hear an XXXX accent- I would never talk to him again. But his accent wasnt noticeable at all which was also weird he actually had a nice voice. I reported him to the FTC and he blocked me on everything. I have cried a lot these last few days upon learning he was a catfish and a scammer. He is NOT in the military he is NOT XXXX to the XXXX. He is a scammer at the end of the day. The fact is, I dont know who I was talking to these past 3 weeks. I dont know where the money came from if it was stolen money or not Im just not sure. I called the police but no one has reported the money missing or stolen. So Im going to keep following up with the bank and the police on this matter. Ive reported this to the FBI website as well.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation