Consumer complaint received 2018-04-25
Company: BBVA FINANCIAL CORPORATION
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
To whom it may concern, My husband and I are a retired couple living in XXXX XXXX. We opened a checking account linked to a money market account at BBVA Compass Bank in XX/XX/XXXX in XXXX XXXX, TX. We were receiving our bank statements in XXXX XXXX by mail up until around XX/XX/XXXX, and then we stopped receiving the statements. It wasnt until XX/XX/XXXX that the statements were mailed to us again and we learned that there were several fraudulent transactions including a temporary change of address, while these transactions were taking place. 

Originally, our money market account had {$40000.00} USD and our checking account had {$5000.00} USD. We have all of the checks that the bank issued which start with the number XXXX and we have never used any of them. In XX/XX/XXXX when we started getting our statements again, we learned that our accounts had {$2900.00} in our money market account and {$120.00} in our checking account. We immediately called the bank and discovered that our accounts were compromised. They sent us copies of the checks issued to withdrawal the money from our accounts. This individual named XXXX XXXX gained access to our accounts and changed the mailing address from our XXXX address to a XXXX, TX address, proceeded to order checks with check numbers in the XXXX where you can see our names clearly misspelled. In XX/XX/XXXX, he transferred {$4700.00} USD from our checking account into our money market account and he also made the following withdrawals using three checks : 1 : XX/XX/XXXX Check # XXXX for {$36000.00} ( the bank would not tell us if it was cashed or a deposit ) 2 : XX/XX/XXXX Check # XXXX for {$2000.00} cashed at a BBVA Compass in XXXX, TX 3 : XX/XX/XXXX Check # XXXX for {$2000.00} cashed at a BBVA Compass in XXXX, TX With our names misspelled, check numbers that dont belong to the checks issued to us by the bank, and with forged signatures, these checks were all honored and processed by the bank. We started by calling the bank in XX/XX/XXXX and they immediately dismissed our complaint by saying that we signed a contract in XX/XX/XXXX that states that we had a period of ( 3 ) months to file a complaint for any account discrepancies and we had waited over ( 6 ) months to start a complaint. We read our contract in its entirety and there is no clause that states ( 3 ) months to file a discrepancy. It states to contact the bank as soon as possible when there is a discrepancy. 

In addition, this individual that allegedly stole our money, opened a BBVA Compass bank account in XX/XX/XXXX and closed it in XX/XX/XXXX in one of the XXXX, TX branches where one of the checks was cashed. The bank refused to provide any additional details on that account to us. 

We have called the bank many times and spoken to many people, we have sent them letters, we travelled to XXXX this month of XX/XX/XXXX to file a police report for the checks that were cashed in the XXXX, TX branches and also to try to obtain more information about these checks. The person that helped us at one of the BBVA branches in XXXX, TX was in awe of what had happened to us and in disbelief that these checks were actually cashed after all the inaccuracies shown by the fake checks and signatures. She also said this was very clear fraud and also said that if she had been the investigator, she would have refunded the money to us. 

Yet, BBVA Compass continues to deny responsibility and wrote in a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX that the bank is not liable for this loss and that they will cooperate with law enforcement as needed, but they refuse to cooperate with us, their clients and account holders. They keep hiding behind the ( 3 ) month limit clause to file a complaint that does not exist in our contract or in their current contract on their website. 

We strongly believe that the bank is responsible for reimbursing us this money. They were fully negligent in cashing checks with the wrong information and forged signature. We are now being forced to hire an attorney in the US which has not been easy while living in XXXX XXXX, but this is our only chance to recover our stolen money which constituted the bulk of our life savings. We will also now seek reimbursement of all the accumulated expenses and attorneys fees. 

Anything you can do to assist us with this fraud will be greatly appreciated. 

Warm Regards, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation