Consumer complaint received 2022-02-08
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
On Saturday XX/XX/2022 at around XXXX I received a call on my cell phone from Santander Bank as per my display screen on my phone that is what it came up as. They called about fraud going on with my account and started to ask me a bunch of questions in regards to stuff about my account. They were mostly asking me about some XXXX transactions that were pending and not being processed in the meantime they kept send passcode numbers to reset my account 7 in total as to which I inputted every time. All of the transactions they tried to process were for people I never even heard of than expect for one person that I has XXXX one other time who was a friend of a friend, so the gentleman on the other end told me that i would received a text about that transaction and to reply yes and that when we got off the phone to contact this person and have her decline the transaction, once that was complete I was told that my account was frozen and the cards were locked. Once we were done on the phone we contact our friend who was friends with the person the XXXX transaction took place with to refuse it so that we could get it back not knowing while this was going on the transaction was already approved and upon speaking with our friend his friend never even got a XXXX request. Next day Sunday XX/XX/2022 i called Santander to discuss further with them to get our money back also tried calling Saturday night but was unable to get through. Come to find out that our account had been hacked and that the call on Saturday was a fraud. Spoke to XXXX from Santander to have him file a claim and to really freeze my account and cards. Everyhting was filed and claim was submited and we were told we would hear back in 3-5 days. On Monday XX/XX/XXXX my husband and I went to our local branch to open a new account in which I left early from work to do so. Upon my husband getting to the bank prior to get the ball rolling the lovely lady told us that she did not have time to open the account and would get us moeny if that is what we needed and to come back another day to open an account. I was very unhappy with that and went to the bank myself to make a long story short she was able to open a new account but could not help otherwise in regards to the fraud stuff nor would she even reach out to them for us. The week went by no work from the bank in regards to the fraud so on MondayXX/XX/XXXX I went to the bank to follow up when they proceeded to tell me they could not help I need to do so on my own, however they needed to contact fraud to lift the freeze so money could be moved and they let me speak with them myself in regards to our claim. In speaking with XXXX we were told that the claim had been denied for inconsistencies in which we never even received a letter or call about. XXXX said they usually don't but she will submit another claim as she felt this was the wrong decision. As per then no more contact with the bank still waiting to see where we stand but as per other Santander reps they do not see this as being approved.

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