Consumer complaint received 2022-08-27
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: IL
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On the evening of XX/XX/2022, I received a text on my cell phone asking if I had made a transaction of {$2000.00}. It mimicked the exact language in previous authentic fraud alerts I had received. At that point I responded no, and immediately received a follow-up call from someone saying they were with Chase Fraud Prevention ( again, similar to the authentic process ). 

In discussing the supposed charge with the individual on the other end of the line, he repeatedly expressed the gravity of the situation, identified some of my key personal details ( leading me to believe he was a Chase employee ) and even sent a verification code to my phone from another number. At that time I looked up the phone number he was calling from again and it matched the number listed on the back of my debit card. 

In the midst of this, he was expressing to me how this charge would make me overdrawn ( which was true, and led me to further believe that he was in fact a Chase employee given that he knew my balance somehow ). I continued to grow very scared and nervous and was not thinking straight. After he sent protocols for how the charges could be reversed, I was unwittingly tricked into initiating an electronic funds transfer of {$500.00}. After seeing that the process did not follow the steps that the third party on the other line outlined, I became suspicious and upset. When my husband got on the phone, the caller hung up. 

Immediately afterwards, I called Chase ( my financial institution ) to report the fraud. The first customer service rep I spoke with indicated that they couldnt do anything and transferred me to the fraud department. The representative at the fraud department indicated that she could seemingly just delete the recipient from XXXX to take care of it, but that she would still need to transfer me to someone else to file a claim. It was at that time I provided all of the information regarding how I was induced by someone pretending to be a representative from Chase into providing funds and account information. 

What is most unsettling ( and what I feel to be clearly in contrast to their supposed policies ) is that the representative herself acknowledged/admitted that she doubted that the responsible department would even open a courtesy investigation. How am I supposed to trust the security and protection of my bank if their own representatives ultimately tell their clients that they can not do anything and that it will likely not even be looked into? This is a blatant acknowledgment of not following the protections, promises and policies that they publish in their customer agreement documents. Also, if someone is able to impersonate a Chase employee with such accuracy, it appears that that suggests a lacking in security and authentication efforts. 

This is all just very unsettling. While it was difficult enough to feel the violation of such a crime, it felt just as debilitating to have my bank simply turn their backs on a family who has been a good customer for a long time.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief