Consumer complaint received 2021-08-22
Company: NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: MD
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:
On XX/XX/2021 I was made aware that checks that I wrote from my XXXX XXXX  account on behalf of my non-profit organization, the XXXX XXXX XXXX, were stolen out of a blue postal service mail box in my neighborhood on XX/XX/XXXX, altered, and cashed for fraudulent amounts. While I have only ever written checks to Farmers Market vendors from that account for small amounts ranging from {$5.00} to {$150.00}, the following transactions were approved by Navy Federal Credit Union as they were deposited into accounts in that bank : check # XXXX to XXXX XXXX for {$900.00} check # XXXX to XXXX XXXX for {$950.00} check # XXXX to XXXX XXXX for {$950.00} It is very clear from the check images that my original signature was not used and that they were tampered with. I filed a police report with the XXXX Police ( report # XXXX ) and the police confirmed there have been many cases of this fraud happening and I was not a singular case. I also filed a report with the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General, and filled out a fraud/forgery investigation form with the bank. The Postal Inspector 's information is below : XXXX XXXX Postal Inspector - Mail Theft U.S. Postal Inspection Service Washington Division XXXX ( Desk ) I have asked about the status of having my stolen funding of {$2800.00} refunded back into my account so I can fund my farmers market operations, and XXXX keeps informing me that I need to have some further evidence of what the original amounts on the checks had been before Navy Federal Credit Union will reimburse XXXX, and then XXXX would reimburse me. I have told XXXX that my records show that I wrote the checks in alphabetical order ( 9 were stolen and only 3 were deposited ) and that would mean the original amounts and payees were as follows : XXXX 's XXXX  - {$92.00} - XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  - {$10.00} - XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX - {$10.00} - XXXX All of vendors confirmed that they never got the checks I had originally mailed them. But Navy Federal Credit Union is telling XXXX I need more evidence, which I simply can not produce because I wrote the checks quickly and did not mark them in a check register. XXXX believes that NFCU is asking for " unreasonable evidence '', which means they want an image of the check before it was altered. Why would I have that? Do people regularly take pictures of checks before they put them in the mail? I need help pushing this forward in order to continue to fund my farmers market operations and it seems to be at a standstill where Navy Federal Credit Union does not want to pay for the fraudulent account that they held for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ). I believe other evidence would be to look at all other checks I have written on behalf of the market to review handwriting as well as notes - I have never written a check for " Labor, '' for example, and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX is not employed by the XXXX XXXX XXXX.

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