Consumer complaint received 2019-08-07
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: WA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I am having an issue with USAA regarding a fraud case concerning unauthorized withdrawals from my USAA checking account via XXXX and XXXX. USAA banking is making it very difficult to recover the money that was stolen from me when other financial institutions have helped me with this difficult situation. They gave two letters onXX/XX/XXXXand XX/XX/2019 respectively saying that they found no fraud, but have not given any explanation or offered any solutions on how to help recover my stolen money. I am a XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX veteran who was robbed and am not a lawyer. I am frustrated, angry and feel lost. I was traveling as a way to heal and get over the trauma that I experienced as part of the recovery plan for after I retired from the service. The issue first occurred while I was traveling out of the country for an extended period of time. While I was traveling in XXXX, I had a travel companion with me who was transferring funds from my account to hers without my knowledge. I did not realize the full extent of the fraud until I came back to the US. She transferred a large portion of the money right before we got on the plane together in XXXX, but transferred smaller amounts before that. She used my phone to transfer money to her accounts via XXXX and XXXX. The total amount of fraud from my USAA accounts totaled {$11000.00}. A total of {$3200.00} has been recovered by USAA so far, but another {$8400.00} has not been recovered. To provide some more background information, there was fraud from other financial institutions totaling around {$11000.00}, all of which was recovered. The grand total of all of the attempted theft by this individual was around {$23000.00}. The portion that was fraud using my USAA VISA card was fixed easily by USAA ( {$3200.00} ). However, the fraud concerning my USAA checking account is where USAA is not cooperating. The fraud here involved XXXX and XXXX transactions. It seems like USAA operates different departments separately where they have different policies. USAA gave their written response in a short letter saying that they concluded their investigation on XX/XX/2019. Amazingly, in USAAs written response and on the phone, nobody seemed to address the fraud from the XXXX transactions. This fraud totals {$2500.00} and was drawn from my USAA checking account between XX/XX/2019. There was another letter that was just as vague dated on XX/XX/2019 saying that they made a conclusion based on an investigation that began on XX/XX/2019. This means that they spent less than a day investigating. It does not say what it addresses but supplies a reference number XXXX. When I tried to contact the USAA banking department for a response as to why they concluded in the letter that the transactions were not fraudulent, I received numerous unhelpful answers. Usually the person I spoke to would not know and would transfer me to someone else, and this would often result being placed on hold for a long time or having my call dropped. Often times the next person would not know and I would have to explain my whole situation again. This was very frustrating and took a lot of time and I felt like I did not matter. When I did finally talk to someone, I would get a variety of answers such as make a police report, hire a lawyer, reach out to the party who took your money or there is nothing that can be done. Another explanation that I received is the fact that the fingerprint reader was used to access the XXXX on my phone. What they didnt want to hear was that the person traveling with me had access to my phone and probably added her fingerprint to it without me knowing it. It seems like USAA turned a deaf ear to every explanation I had. Even for the police report I said so should I go back to XXXX and do that and they did not know. One representative from USAA even said that XXXX said that there is nothing that can be done. This is not true based on the fact that XXXX themselves even reversed the fraud on the XXXX fraud ( more on that below ). In addition, lots of the fraud was done via XXXX and even the USAA credit card division reversed some of it. This was really demoralizing and felt like I did not matter. In fact, it felt like I had been robbed twice. The person who originally robbed me was someone I trusted, and I felt the same way about USAA. And again, nobody addressed the XXXX fraud. In addition, she also stole from my XXXX XXXX XXXX account, my XXXX XXXX XXXX, my XXXX XXXX Account and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Accounts as well using the same scheme via XXXX and XXXX. I am including this information to show how this was a larger scheme and to contrast how other financial institutions handled it. Fortunately, all of these financial institutions were able to refund all of the amounts easily and rectify the situation. USAA has been the only financial institution giving me trouble about refunding the money that was stolen. To contrast how these institutions handled it, I included the statements and some emails from the other institutions as further evidence. The person who stole from me stole {$5000.00} from my XXXX XXXX card via XXXX. This was immediately picked up as fraud and reversed. They originally tried to charge over {$8000.00} but it was denied. XXXX XXXX even reached out and contacted me since it seemed suspicious sending someone so much money via XXXX. In addition, she also attempted to steal {$1500.00} with my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX via XXXX and this was also reversed easily. I attached the statement showing this. With XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, the fraud was done via XXXX on my checking account. This required a simple stop by in the XXXX XXXX branch where I signed a form to reverse it. This is shown as a {$4000.00} credit on my statement. Lastly, the person who stole from me used my XXXX XXXX to steal {$1000.00} that was reversed by XXXX themselves because they believed that it was fraudulent. My goal is to have USAA reverse the remaining balance that was stolen from that persons account and settle this case like the other financial institutions have. This will help to right a wrong that was done to me. How can USAA credit card division and other financial institutions realize that there was fraud, but USAAs banking division does not realize that there is plain fraud in front of them and refuses to help recover my the money that was stolen from me. The simplest and easiest way is to just reverse the transactions like every other financial institution, including XXXX credit and USAAs own credit card division did. In addition, I would like USAA to review some of their policies as to why I had to turn to the CFPB to help rectify this situation so that members in the future will feel valued and secure as members of USAA. The mission of USAA is to serve members of the military, past and present. I am calling on to them to live up to that ideal. Because I have felt that USAA does not care about me. I am a XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX retired veteran and the {$8400.00} that I am missing means a lot to me. I attached some supporting documents showing statements from other institutions refunding the charges. You can see the XXXX Charges XXXX XXXX. The XXXX XXXX one shows a refund for several XXXX for the unauthorized XXXX transactions ( shown as adjustment credit ). I also showed how USAA refunded the credit card disputes but not the debit and XXXX disputes. Lastly, I have a PDF with a chart showing all of the transactions with USAA that I disputed, the date, the amount, the type and if it was refunded or not. Thank you for your cooperation with this matter Please note : I attached documents to this through the CFPB website but there is no way to verify if they uploaded. So if they did not upload I apologize.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation