Consumer complaint received 2022-04-29
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: NM
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:
My name is XXXX XXXX, I'm a Senior XXXX and Senior XXXX at XXXX XXXX in XXXX, NM on XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I'm the son of a XXXX veteran and the husband of a XXXX in the United States XXXX XXXX XXXX. I am also a XXXX customer of USAA Federal Savings Bank XXXX 
USAA Federal Savings Bank is currently being consumed by widespread fraudulent activity, hacks and scams that are financially impacting banking systems, members and now my family. The wide spread nature of these hacks and scams is clear to anyone that just scratches the surface. Social media is filled with users specifically documenting each of their own losses, USAAs webpage calls out how not to interact with a phone call from USAA because the hack has allowed fraudulent actors to impersonate USAAs phone number and have your confidential information, USAA customer service has changed their closing statement to include a warning about this wide spread hack, and the their entire customer service staff is overwhelmed with hold times commonly over XXXX hours to reach a live person. 
My family was recently the victim of this fraudulent activity. For our family fraudulent actors hacked XXXX of our USAA accounts, sent themselves checks ( fraudulently ) and then called my family from the USAA number to ask if these were fraudulent transactions. Through a sophisticated process designed to mimic USAA contacting a member to assess if activity was fraudulent the fraudulent actors were able to establish confidence that they were USAA by having details of the existing fraudulent transactions were, calling from the USAA phone number, having the USAA telephone hold music, and knowing confidential information about our accounts with USAA. This process resulted in our familys losses of ~ {$6000.00}. Once my family realized the situation, we immediately called USAA ( same day as the fraud ) and USAA failed to take any action to freeze the transaction, stop shipment of the checks or stop payment on the checks. Instead, they allowed {$6000.00} worth of fraudulent charges to process. To date USAA has failed to take any action to cover this fraud for my family and has said they will not reimburse it because it was our fault. 
USAAs message that plays when you call their customer service number specifically calls out that its members can rest assured that if their credit card or debit cards have fraudulent activity on them the member will not be responsible. This zero-liability statement to its members policy is in compliance with the EFTA ( XXXX XXXX ) and the recent XX/XX/2021 guidance from the CFPB that states situations where a bad actor has fraudulently obtained access to a customer 's account information by either calling the customer under false pretenses to obtain login or similar information, etc., these transactions are trigger EFTA coverage XXXX However, in my cause USAA has failed to follow CFPB guidance and is stating it has XXXX liability to the unauthorized transactions that were reported to USAA on the day of the activity. Specifically, USAA took no action to stop the transactions and the checks issued from my account or to reimburse the fraudulent transactions. These failure to properly investigate, the failure to honor our requests for stop payment on the checks issued, the fact that USAA wrongfully allowed more than the allowed checks to be issued fraudulently from the account, the fact they arent limiting our liability under XXXX XXXX, failed to warn us that checks were being requested and sent from our account, gave us false information that the checks hadnt been sent, when in fact they had and were subsequently cashed, are similar patterns of conduct for which USAA has been fined by XXXX, XXXX and CFPB, and USAA should be investigated for their continual pattern of negligent and criminal behavior. 

Based on USAAs failure to comply with CFPB guidance I am writing to you to ask that you consider my complaint and enforce USAAs obligations under federal law. This will require USAA to reimburse fraudulent activity to myself and the countless other members directly impacted by USAAs negligence.

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