Consumer complaint received 2018-05-13
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: MO
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
Hi : I am not sure where to begin, I was a victim of a scam. I have filed a police report in regards to this. Repot # XXXX, it was filed in XXXX, Missouri, XXXX County. I have contacted the fraud department of my banking institution. They are holding me liable for the funds that have been taken from my account. I am now in the deficit {$6300.00} do to this. 

I need help, I am not sure what to do. I bank with USAA and have for 23 years. I have at this time been locked out of my account, I can not access my personal information to even see what bills of are going through and what the current status of charges are. I do consider this my personal finical information and should not be denied access to. I am working with the local police department in regards to this and need that information for them as well. 

I was contacted via XXXX for a job, it was a XXXX XXXXXXXX position. I check out the information of the gentleman who contacted me and he appeared to be local and legitimate, with a medical supply company here in town. I was currently seeking employment and had my resume out on several different online employment sites. He requested That I send my resume, I did. He contacted me back the next day offering me the job and description of my duties. It seemed reasonable. I would be receiving a weekly pay check of {$400.00} for 3-7 hours a week. 

He sent me a message that he would be issuing me a check to cover my first weeks pay and funds to cover, office supplies, printing and software licensing that I would need for the job. The check was in the amount of {$3400.00}. I thought it was a lot of money but I know XXXX XXXX   can be expensive. He contacted me and sent me the tracking information for the check and told me to contact him when I received it. Once I received it, he told me to deposit the check, and send him conformation once I did this, at this time not thinking much of it I did. He then messaged me and asked me to withdraw the funds minus my paycheck to get the supplies, so I did. Once I had he asked me then to take the money to a XXXX XXXX XXXX and deposit the funds into and account and sent me a name and account number. The bank he wanted me to go to was a XXXX XXXX, we do not have a XXXX XXXX branch in MO. He then directed me to overnight the money to this individual, this made me very uncomfortable, I was holding a lot of money that wasn't mine. I followed his instructions and sent it off overnight via XXXX which was {$60.00} to do so, and sent him a copy of the receipt and tracking information. 

He contacted me via text the next day, asking if I could send out {$350.00} to this lady that she needed more money to get the rest of the supplies. Red flag - I told him no, that was apart of the agreed upon paycheck and at this point I had already pent {$60.00} for the shipping of the money. He told me not to worry that he would be sending me another check. I told him that I couldnt ht aI had already transferred the money to use to help make my rent payment sit was our agreed upon payment. He asked me what I was afraid of, I told him that I wasnt afraid that I simply no longer had the funds. He then told me he would send another check, I asked him why he was sending it to me and not directly to XXXX XXXX. He didnt respond to my inquiries. Later I told him I was not comfortable with this process and asked is we could speak on the pone to discuss he did not respond to this comment. I told him I did not want to be apart of this process and was not comfortable with his request. This was on Friday. 

He messaged me Monday morning letting me know that another check was on its way. I thought it was the for the {$350.00} to send. I told him again that I didnt not want to be apart of this I felt he was doing something wrong and this was not part of my job description and what I had been hired for. During that time the next check came and it was another for the {$3400.00} I told him I didnt want to participate. He asked me to hold on while he called from another line. I have recording software on my computer, when he Calle dI put it on speaker phone and hit record. He is a man with a thick XXXX accent, not a Man who claims to be from XXXX Missouri, I called him out on this and told him he was not XXXX XXXX XXXX, he insisted that he was and that he was from Missouri even though he could not pronounce it correctly. I told him I did not want to be involved in this. He at this point became very upset and threatening to me. He was claiming that I had his money. I told him that I was going to go to the police at this time he threatened to come after me knowing where I lived and that he would kill me - I was very shaken up at this point, because he did have all my personal information and physical address. I deposited the check, made the withdraw and sent the money as requested. I was extremely shaken up and scared. I contacted close friends of mine and told them what happened and stayed the night at their house. The next day I went to the police department to file the police report. I also called the XXXX XXXX where the checks had come from and spoke to a XXXX XXXX XXXX as his name was in the email in regard to the tracking information. I wanted to let him know what was going on, when he got on the phone he seemed quite irritated that I was calling and dismissive with me, he was not interested in what I had to say. Which lead me to believe that he was somehow in on this scam. I also was able to make contact with the real XXXX XXXX XXXX here in town, he did tell me that his XXXX account had been hacked a few weeks prior to all of this and has since been locked out. He was unaware that his identity had actually been used. 

I have filed the police report, they have all the evidence, I have the recorded phone conversation that included the death threat, and all email, text message correspondence and shipping receipts. I have contacted the fraud department at my bank and filed a report. I have since been locked out of my account denied access to my personal information. bEfore this started I had a little over {$1500.00} in my account of personal funds. The 2 fraudulent checks where charged back and my account is now the last I was able to see {$6300.00} in the negative. I am now not only feel threatened in my own home, I have lost my personal money, I dont have job I thought I had and now my account is in serious deficit. I have never been involved in any form of illegal activity, I am scared to death and now worried about losing my home, the banking institution I have been with for 23 years and do not have the means to recover these funds. 

What are my right what can I do, this is criminal I was scammed and a threat was a made on my life. I am asking for your help and assistance in this matter. 

Kind regards, XXXX

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