Consumer complaint received 2019-11-07
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: OH
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
Chase fraudulent charges I am writing to dispute JP Morgan Chase Banks decision of denying reimbursement of fraudulent charges to my savings account ending in XXXX. 

My husband and I noticed fraudulent charges onto our savings account on XX/XX/XXXX. We immediately called Chase fraud services to report. They took the info down and started a claim. We received a letter with the info of the claim ( see attachment ). There were a total of six fraudulent charges on our account. We did not initially notice the first four, as they were smaller amounts. We had a large sum of money in our savings at this time, and did not notice a small amount missing. 

As soon as we noticed the large amounts, we notified Chase. We, then, received a second letter the following day ( XXXX ). It states that Chase isnt going to reverse the charges on the most recent fraudulent transactions because the first ones are more than 60 days old. 

We then went to our local Chase branch in XXXX, OH on Monday, XXXX XXXX. We spoke with a representative, XXXX. We explained the situation to her and she immediately said, I am only the middle man. She proceeded to call the fraud department while we were in her cubical. After getting off phone with fraud dept. she explained to us this 60 day law as she called it. She says, They can not break the law and that the FDIC made it up and they have no control over it. We explained to her that XXXX  XXXX  is willing to cover all the charges and reimburse us provided that Chase contact them, letting them know it was a fraudulent charge. She told the Fraud dept. this. After hanging up with the fraud dept she said they told her that theyre still unwilling to reimburse the fraud transactions, but they did file a claim with XXXX XXXX. She said we didnt need to do anything at that point but to wait for XXXX XXXX to credit the account. Meanwhile she closed out our Savings account and moved our money to our checking account. 

XXXX proceeded to blame us for the fraudulent charges on our savings account. She told us how we shouldve had our alerts on and that wouldve notified us of the fraudulent charges. I asked XXXX repeatedly about the XXXX XXXX   account being in a name completely different from either of ours. Her response was that anyone can use anyone elses account. We dont know who you let use your account. I believe she meant a XXXX XXXX account. I hope she did not mean savings!! Regardless, if she meant XXXX, NO!!! You can not let someone else use your account. And the account was never verified as being the correct account. ( per XXXX  XXXX  ). I asked her why it didnt raise a red flag to them having someone else debiting out of my savings. She said it didnt seem out of the ordinary since we had our sons college tuition debited ( only two times ever! ) out of our account, when the first two fraud debits were done months before! This doesnt add up to what she is telling us. Chase has taken no responsibility and XXXX put all the blame on us. 

To set the record straight, I had every available alert on to my knowledge. When I told XXXX this, she stated, well there are always new alerts Chase is coming out with. How are we, the consumer, supposed to know this? We were never given any info that there were new alerts on our app. Also what if we did not use an app. Then what? When does Chase have to take responsibility? When are they held accountable for the security of their customers money? 

XXXX also stated that this kind of thing happens a lot. It even happened to her husband. If Chase knows this why did they not inform their customers to be alert and pay attention to their accounts because this scam was going on. Why wasnt Chase doing anything to protect its customers. Per XXXX, Chase was aware of how scammers take out small amounts at first, then waited after the 60 days, then took out large amounts. They knew this!! What accountability do they have knowing this??? They did nothing to protect us as customers. 

I have attached documents that show the un- reimbursed amounts along with the dates. If you need I can provide pics of my bank account transactions. Please let me know if you need further evidence of the fraudulent transactions. 

I spoke with XXXX several times, and received the same answers from each person I spoke with. On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX, I spoke with a representative, XXXX. I explained the situation. XXXX stated that Chase just has to reverse or dispute the charges and they will reimburse our account. XXXX also stated that the bank is able to see the name attached with the transactions. ( if thats the case, why did Chase let these transactions go through without concern? ). XXXX instructed us to contact Chase and cancel our account and he did the same on his end so no more charges could occur from that XXXX account or our Savings account. XXXX stated the name associated with the fraudulent XXXX account is XXXX XXXX. He asked if we knew of this person. I explained that I had no clue of this person. 

I spoke with a XXXX, and XXXX from XXXX XXXXl, to have them say the same things. They said that Chase does have the means to reverse the ACH transaction and to be able to dispute it as a fraudulent charge. XXXX states they have NEVER had a bank that wouldnt reverse the ACH charge. She said theyre capable and should be willing. XXXX states they are willing to reimburse the account but need the banks help. I got the phone number and case number to give to Chase. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, after still not receiving any kind of reimbursement, we went to our local Chase branch again. This time we spoke with XXXX XXXX. She called Chase fraud dept. with the same results. She did print out the letter that chase gave us to send to XXXX XXXX. She again reminded us of the 60day law but said if XXXX is willing to reimburse the account she would try and help. I called XXXX at XXXX on the XXXX and left a message with the claim number ( XXXX ) and phone number XXXX to call XXXX XXXXl directly. 

When I spoke with XXXX at XXXX, she stated that there is not a fax number or email to send a letter to. Also, that the bank needed to dispute the ACH charges and that is the only way to get money back. XXXX said that the bank does know how to do that and there is no reason they shouldnt. 

We would like the following to be the outcome of this complaint : 1. We DEMAND a full refund of all the six fraudulent charges, from Chase Bank. We dont care how they do it. They can contact XXXX as asked or just simply refund our money into our checking account ( as our savings is closed ).

2. The refunded amount needs to be XXXX which is the total amount of all six fraudulent charges. ( $ XXXX has been temporarily refunded- this needs to be permanent. ) 3. We DEMAND to be compensated for our lost work time and suffering. The amount to be compensated for this is {$300.00}. We both lost 1.5 hours of work. This equals about {$200.00}. The other {$100.00} is for the time and effort put into research and fighting this battle.

4. We would like their to be a policy in place to let customers know of their 60 day policy in regards to the fraudulent charges.

5. We would like there to be a policy put into place for Chase and its representatives to red flag fraudulent charges and to have a better safety guard for this.

6. We demand Chase and its representatives change the verbiage they use for the FDIC 60 day policy. They need to not tell customers its a law and they can not break it. When in fact, its an institutional policy of Chase. That is misrepresenting the truth to your own advantage.

7. We demand Chase to prove that two AcH transactions to a college ( even though we have two college accounts attached to us ) justifies it being normal for our savings to have ACH transactions. which led Chase, per XXXX, to overlook those fraudulent transactions. ( dont forget the first two fraudulent transactions were months before! ) Our demands are based on the facts that Chase is negligent on being held accountable for poor monitoring of accounts that have fraudulent charges.

Chase is guilty of putting blame on the customer and taking no responsibility for its lack of actions or protection of its customers.

Chase has lied about this 60 day law that we were quoted over and over. The law states on the FDIC website that consumers MAY not get their money back if over sixty days. Does not say its a law and doesnt say they WILL NOT! 
Chase must not be allowed to use this verbiage! 

We have never had a XXXX account attached to any Chase account. This should have raised a red flag to Chase. 

It is so rare for a XXXX account to be linked to a savings account. I would like Chase to prove how many savings accounts in comparison to other types of accounts ( like checking or credit card ) to prove it is not common at all. Even the reps from XXXX XXXX were shocked this happened to a savings account. 

The most important reason that Chase should give our refund is because XXXX XXXX  is WILLING to reimburse the money!!! There is no reason Chase shouldnt reverse the ACH charges or dispute them. What reason do they have? They arent going to be paying us back, XXXX would be. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation