Consumer complaint received 2021-05-24
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MD
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem making or receiving payments

Complaint:
On Friday XX/XX/21, I received {$920.00} from XXXX XXXX through XXXX. The reference number for this transaction is XXXX. I had never heard of this person, nor was I expecting any money from anyone. The memo said " cars and labor. '' I immediately called BB & T to report the mistake, as I assumed that the person typed a phone number wrong, and would be contacting me soon to request the money back. The representative from BB & t suggested that I send the money back to the person. I didn't have this person 's contact information because she was a complete stranger and because the email from BB & T and the notification in my account just said the name, not the contact information. My XXXX  account showed that I received money from the person 's name, with no other information other than a reference number. The bank rep asked me if I was SURE I didn't know the person, because she typed my EMAIL address in, not my phone number. At this point, I started to get suspicious because I have a really unusual email address since it's my first initial and my last name. I assured him I did not know the person. He assured me it would be safe to send it back, but I was dissatisfied with that and wanted a paper trail. Since I was the recipient of the funds and not the sender, the rep from BB & T said there was nothing I could do to try to reverse the transaction. He was able to tell me that the senders bank is XXXX XXXX, so he suggested that I could call XXXX and see if they could help me. He also said, Or maybe theyll never contact you and you just got {$920.00} richer. That was incredibly insensitive. Unfortunately, I didnt get his name. I began to be suspicious at this point that perhaps there was fraud. 

I called XXXX XXXX, the sender 's bank, and gave them the reference number and the person 's name but was told the same thing - that I could not do anything to try to reverse the transaction as the recipient. The XXXX XXXX  person told me that the person who sent it mistakenly to me may contact me and ask me to send it back. He said I could send it back, but when I told him that I was suspicious and felt uncomfortable sending such a large sum of money to a complete stranger, he told me that I could encourage the sender to work through the banks to resolve the issue. He also said, " XXXX bless you, no one who gets money on accident ever reaches out. '' Monday morning I received the first in a string of emails from the sender. The sender XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX ) said that she did not know how the money was sent to me on accident, that she spent hours on the phone with her bank, and had filed an escalated dispute. She told me that the bank told her that the easiest way to handle this would be to ask me to send it back to her. I wrote her back and said that I was also interested in getting the money back to her as soon as possible. I suggested that we continue through the bank since that was how she started the process of trying to get the money back. I didnt understand how she was able to accidentally send me money when she was a complete stranger, so I was concerned about fraud. She wrote back several times asking me to send the money back but I replied only once, suggesting again that we go through the banks process. I called BB & T and spoke with a rep named XXXX who agreed that it sounded suspicious, but that it was nearly impossible for scammers to use XXXX. He said that I should not send the money back if I didnt feel comfortable. He told me to trust my gut, but again reiterated that there was nothing the bank could do to reverse the transaction. 

On Wednesday XX/XX/21, she sent me a threatening email and said that her bank told her that I denied the request to reverse the transaction. That is false. I did not receive any information from my bank and would have approved the reversal. I called BB & T and spoke with an agent named XXXX ( XXXX ). She agreed with me that this seemed like a possible scam due to the threatening nature of the email. She told me she had taken a lot of notes and that she had escalated the issue to the XXXX team at BB & T. The ticket number is XXXX. She said it would take probably 5 business days to resolve, even with the escalation. She also encouraged me not to communicate with the sender anymore. I called my local police department, shared the situation with the dispatcher, who told me he would have an officer call me back. But no one called me from the local PD. 

On Thursday XX/XX/21 at XXXX XXXX, I received an email from the sender with another threatening message. At this point, I called the police again, and was transferred to a detective. The detective emailed XXXX XXXX and asked her to call him to help resolve the situation. XXXX XXXX spoke to the police officer and emailed him, copying me, to tell us that she would request a letter from her bank stating that the result of their investigation was that the transaction was valid and that they would not seek a reversal from XXXX. 

I also reached out to the Maryland Consumer Protection hotline, colleagues who work at the Federal Trade Commission, colleagues at the CFPB, a consumer advocate reporter and the local XXXX affiliate television station 's Investigative Unit to try to help me since I was getting nowhere with BB & T and was feeling scared by the threatening emails. 

The consumer advocate responded first, and began helping me. She reached out to XXXX XXXX and communicated with her via XXXX. She told her that I was trying to get the money back to her through the bank and that I was concerned because I had read about fraud of this type. The consumer advocate also told XXXX XXXX that I did not reject the reversal, and in fact, had never heard from my bank. 

On Thursday, XX/XX/21 at XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX sent me an email, copying the Detective, with a document from XXXX XXXX  saying that they had completed their investigation and that they would not be reversing the XXXX transaction. Based on XXXX XXXX interaction with the consumer advocate and the police detective, they suggested that there was enough of a paper trail to transfer the {$920.00} back to XXXX XXXX. 

Shortly after I did, she confirmed that it cleared. About an hour later, I checked my BB & T online account and saw the {$920.00} payment I had authorized to XXXX XXXX, as well as a XXXX reversal charge for {$920.00}. That meant that I had gone from + {$920.00} to - {$920.00} instead of to net zero. 

At this point, I suspected fraud, and called BB & T. I spoke to XXXX (? ) at BB & T who asked me if I had a ticket number or a claim number. When I told her that I had a ticket and not a claim number, she informed me that a ticket was just notes in my file, but would not result in action. She transferred me to a fraud specialist named XXXX. XXXX was wonderful. She told me she hadnt heard of this type of fraud before, but that it certainly seemed like it was fraud based on everything that happened. She told me that since the charge hadnt posted to my account yet, that I would have to wait to file the fraud dispute until the next day. 

On Friday XX/XX/21 around XXXX XXXX  I visited my local BB & T branch on East-West Highway in XXXX, Maryland and met with XXXX. While he was trying to get my XXXX account turned back on so XXXX could possibly issue me a refund, I received a call from XXXX XXXX in BB & Ts digital services department. I put the call on speakerphone so XXXX could hear everything she was saying. She informed me that XXXX from BB & T had requested a reversal of the XXXX transfer after we spoke on XX/XX/21. I did not know that, and was only informed that she was escalating the matter to the BB & T XXXX team. The team approved the reversal at XXXX on Thursday XX/XX/21, but no one informed me. So I made the transfer back to XXXX XXXX without knowledge of what my bank had done. XXXX informed me that she had escalated this to her manager, that she admitted there were obvious flaws in their system and how they handled the situation. XXXX said she was almost positive that XXXX XXXX was lying when she said the money wasn't in her account. XXXX told me that I could ask XXXX XXXX for the money back or file another dispute with the XXXX/Digital Services team. She informed me that there was a chance that I would not get my money back from the dispute so she recommended reaching out to XXXX XXXX. XXXX from BB & T said he was appalled and embarrassed, and I left the branch in tears after being told to have a good weekend by XXXX XXXX. 

Meanwhile, the consumer advocate reached out to XXXX XXXX who said that she did not receive two payments. The consumer advocate also reached out to executive contacts at XXXX and XXXX, who were able to confirm late Friday XX/XX/21 that XXXX XXXX did not receive two payments. They also confirmed that neither XXXX nor XXXX had my funds. 
I am now out {$920.00}. I request that BB & T return my funds to me.

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