Consumer complaint received 2021-12-09
Company: MOUNTAIN AMERICA FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: UT
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Getting a loan or lease
Sub-issue: Fraudulent loan

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021 I went to Mountain America CU to inquire about the possibility of a refinance on my car loan that is currently with XXXX XXXX. I sat down with a loan officer by the name of XXXX XXXXXXXX at the branch. I let her know that in no way way I seeking to process a loan that day, just wanting to inquire about what they need from me XXXX XXXX and where my XXXX score needs to be at in order to get a loan with them. I also let her know that I had ( 2 ) credit cards with very small balances that I wanted to pay off by the end of XXXX before I would ever process a loan. She tried to talk me into consolidating those smaller balances into an auto loan to which I declined and said no I would rather pay off those as scheduled and just refinance the car alone. The consolidation idea came up one additional time to which I again declined. 
XXXX asked me if it was okay to do a soft pull on my credit so she and I could look it over and see where I stood. I verbally agreed that a soft pull was perfectly fine as it does not affect my credit in anyway. She pulled up my information and noticed my student loans to which o let her know that because I am on XXXX  they really should have never been put on my credit, however the student loan place, put them on my credit in a default status one year after I was approved for XXXX I let her know that I would look into my student loans being removed as that would aid in my chances of approval for a loan. 
The entire conversation between us she was fielding XXXX  messages on her PC asking her when she was ready to go to lunch. I knew we werent going to process a loan that day so I thanked her for her information and time, she handed me a business card with her name and wrote down her extension number on it. As I was getting in my car I saw her leave for lunch. 

I contacted the student loan department to which they let me know the loans would take up to ( 3 ) years to remove so there was no hope in getting them removed. I tried calling the number on the card and it only went to a central location for the Credit union and not her direct extension. By then emailed her letting her know what the student loan place said and let her know that I would not be coming in to complete any paperwork and we could just forget about going forward. She never emailed me back nor did she contact me via phone. 

Fast forward a few weeks and I found out that she actually processed a hard pull as well as processed the loan on my behalf without my approval, authorization, or consent to do so. 2 out of 3 credit union agents that I spoke with and point blank asked if a loan was filed in my name lied to me saying no. Finally the third admitted that yes a loan was filed, however I was denied. She even on the loan application put in an amount being requested that was never spoken about. 

I drove to the branch that XXXX worked at and spoke to the assistant branch manager that was there at the time he instead of hearing my concern that a loan was fraudulently placed in my name made excuses for XXXX letting me know what a great employee she was and gave her nothing but glowing compliments. I asked for this to be pulled back from my credit since I did not authorize this loan to be submitted and instead of filling out the suppression form he tried to make it better by offering me the loan anyways at 8 % when Im currently at 9.74 % This was his way of trying to make what XXXX did OK, as well as not having to fill out the suppression paperwork because it was a fraudulent loan. This is also where I found out that I was XXXX points away on my XXXX  score from actually qualifying for a 3 % loan. I declined his offer and asked again for him to fill out the suppression form to which he did. 

I also had him pull XXXX into his office to get her side of the story and she said that I did give her authorization to process the loan which was a complete fabrication, she also says that she called me back to which she could provide no evidence of this call, and when I let her know that I had emailed her she then said oh yes I emailed you back. Yet once again could provide no evidence of this as well as I have no reply to my email I sent her. Even with her lying in front of her boss he still made it OK that she processed a fraudulent loan in my name. 

Mountain America sent me a paper deeming that the loan was valid and that what XXXX had done was legal. I then contacted their call center back got an email from one of the representatives and forwarded her the email that I had originally sent to XXXX stating that no loan was to be processed. That email was proof that it was a fraudulent loan and Mountain America was going to suppress the loan at that point however nothing was done. Multiple calls on my behalf for me to Mountain America requesting supervisors, management, and anyone who would be able to rectify the situation for me, however not one person would take my calls nor would they call me back from upper management about this issue. 

Fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX and I made contact again with Mountain America via phone and spoke with a XXXX XXXX. He assured me that he would get this completely taken care of for me by drafting up a letter for the suppression and have it sent to legal to have them approve it before sending that off to the credit bureaus for the suppression. I requested that letter be sent to me as well. XXXX forwarded me the email and also mailed me a hard copy of the letter. Not only was the letter condescending but it was also never sent to the credit bureaus. I went into Mountain America on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with a branch manager named XXXX who confirmed that that suppression letter never was sent to the credit bureau on my behalf. It only takes 20 days to have it pulled back and removed once they receive the letter and it had been well past the 20 days. 

I truly feel that mountain America has done nothing on my behalf to rectify the situation of fraud. I have had four months to do all the calling on my behalf, all the visits to the branch locations on my behalf to try and get this fixed months later and its still not fixed. 
Had I committed fraud against a financial institution the law would be completely on their side, I wouldnt have a account with mountain America anymore as they would close it on me and I would be possibly facing jail time. I feel like mountain America is holding no accountability for this fraudulent loan, nor are they holding the loan officer accountable for placing this fraudulent loan in my name. The branch loan officers do get a small commission for loans that they process, so it makes me think that she has indeed done this to others and will continue to do this to other people as well.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief