Consumer complaint received 2022-01-15
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: TX
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2022, someone hacked into my Chase Business Account and added themselves, or two separate individuals to my payroll and then send a Realtime Payroll Payment to themselves from my account, presumably on my computer, the same day. A little before XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, I received a fake call alerting me that there were pending transfers, claiming they were with the Chase Fraud Department and asking if these transfers were approved, to which I said no. The person on the phone verified they were with Chase by reading my entire account number, email address, address and the previous XXXX transactions from that account. When I went to check my account, I was locked out. The person gave me a temporary password and showed me where I could see the transactions being reversed in " Refund Receipts '' and assured me if they had not called me they would have gone through that night by XXXX. I was even sent a survey afterwards from Card Benefit Services on my claim and when I looked up the phone number that the scammer had called on, the first thing that popped up was Chase Private Client. I did not authorize any of the payments, I did not enter any of the routing or account numbers, and I did not send or authorize these payments. The next day, XX/XX/XXXX, I went to check my account to make sure the money was there and Chase had put a freeze on my account due to " unusual activity ''. I immediately called and was told the XXXX transactions had gone through via payroll and that I would need to call the Claims department immediately. 
I was connected to the Claims department and was hung up on after waiting XXXX minutes so I went to Chase before it closed and told my story to the banker. The banker then called the Claims department and relayed my story, but he was told it was denied because the payment type was irreversible and because I initiated it, with no explanation of what that means. 
He said since it was a case of hacking, in order to submit another claim, I would need to file a police report about the hack. I immediately filed the report on the XXXX and was given a temporary case number. I then called the Claims department again and was told because the claim was denied, I would have to dispute the case on my Chase Online Account, which I do not have access to. I asked to speak to the woman 's supervisor. She tried to transfer me and it was taking a while ( about XXXX minutes ) and then the woman said, not knowing I was on the phone " Ugh I want to go home '', to which I said " I can still hear you, I am sorry but I want my {$37000.00} back. '' Very unprofessional. She was clearly embarrassed and about XXXX minutes later the line went blank and I was hung up on. The following morning, on the XXXX, I went to Chase Bank ( a different branch ) and told my story to XXXX different bankers, both agreed I had not initiated and this was a case of hacking and identity theft. I was given the Identity Theft packet from Chase and followed all of the steps once I got home. At the bank I was connected to the correct Claims department and the man told me because there was still an active claim ( which I didn't even know ), I couldn't submit the hacking claim. He said the claim was filed incorrectly but until it was denied we couldn't resubmit the claim. He said I would hear from Chase Claims department via phone once that was denied and we can resubmit. I called later that day to check on the status of that claim and was told again because the payment type was irreversible I would be denied. I said I understood and asked how I would find out once it was denied so that I could resubmit and she said it would be mailed to me, which was different than what I was told previously. 

I have since frozen all of my credit reports, put fraud alerts on all of them, changed every possible password, added security steps on the Chase personal accounts I do have access to, and filed a police report via phone and one via computer, as well as filled out an Identity Theft alert form with identitytheft.gov. 

I am still locked out of my business accounts and Chase never reached out regarding the " unusual activity '' that froze my account in the first place. 
I had no notification from Chase bank that someone from an unknown device logged into my computer, and no questioning from Chase whether I administered these large payments before they were sent. I did not even have Payroll set up. My business is only myself and now I have had {$37000.00} stolen from it, all because Chase allowed someone to access my account. I believe this is a case of negligence on Chase Bank. I have frozen all of my credit reports and put fraud alerts on them.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation