Consumer complaint received 2023-02-08
Company: M&T BANK CORPORATION
State: MA
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:
I am the Treasurer on the Board of a nonprofit called the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, a small spiritual group headquartered in XXXX, Massachusetts. For many years we banked with XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX  which was taken over by M & T bank around XXXX XXXX this past XXXX. 

In early XXXX we noticed fraudulent activity on our checking account, we went to the bank to report it, closed that account, and opened a new checking account. In total there were 17 fraudulent charges against us. I'm a little unclear about the timing but I believe it was in XXXX we saw two fraudulent withdraws from our new checking account so we closed that and opened a new account. The new, third account had one fraudulent withdrawal 10 days ago but the bank quickly accepted the withdrawal as fraudulent and returned the funds. 

Today I received this email from XXXX XXXX, M & T branch manager in XXXX. ( She used to be the manager in XXXX where I used to live ). 

" Hi XXXX, I researched all the claims for the three accounts very thoroughly with our customer support team. The three transactions you mentioned below, M & T reached out to the receiving banks and we learned these transactions were processed through XXXX, a payment processing company. XXXX will not honor or review claim disputes that were not initiated within 24 hours of the original charge. You should have received communication from M & T recently regarding the finalization of these claims. I will forward copies to the XXXX XXXX so you may pick up a hard copy, or I can mail them to you. Please advise which works better for you. 

Thank you, XXXX '' in a second email from XXXX today she wrote : " I just replied to your previous message regarding the three XXXX XXXX transactions. I also replied to your other message about the two checks drawn from the account ending in XXXX. I would recommend reaching out to these companies directly to see if there is any additional investigation to be done ; they have denied the claims placed through M & T. For XXXX XXXX, try calling XXXX, here is their site - XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX For the {$1800.00} check XXXX XXXX  - Online Banking | Open an Online Bank Account | XXXX ; for the {$4500.00} check XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX '' We are hoping you can help us recover our funds. The three instances mentioned above are all obviously fraudulent and the bank is not taking any responsibility for allowing these charges to be paid. The bank has strung us along for months, not at all transparent in their process until today they say they can't do anything more and it's on us to get out money back. Can you please help us? What is the bank 's responsibility here? Do we need a lawyer and take them to court? Any help and advice you can give us will be appreciated.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief