Consumer complaint received 2023-06-24
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: MD
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Around XXXX  EST on XX/XX/XXXX I received a phone call. The caller id said USAA Savings Bank. When I answered the call the caller ( male ) asked if they were speaking to XXXX XXXX. I responded yes this is her. They informed me that they were calling from the fraud department to inquire about potential fraudulent activity on my account. The caller then asked if I was traveling in California which I responded with no. I informed them I had recently been in California over XXXX XXXX weekend. The caller then stated they would go over the charges and asked me to confirm if I had made the purchases. The first was a charge at XXXX for around XXXX and the second was at XXXX for around XXXX. I said I only used my card at a XXXX and not in XXXX XXXX and those purchases were not made by me. The caller informed me these charges would be disputed and my account would not be debited. Then the caller asked me if I had received any alerts from the wire Dept. I responded that I had not received any alerts. The caller stated that there was an attempt made to transfer {$10000.00} out of my account to a XXXX XXXX. I responded that I had never made a wire transfer and did not know anyone named XXXX. The caller then asked if I agreed to an investigation into the fraudulent activity and would I like to press criminal charges. I stated that I did agree and would like criminal charges against the fraudster. The caller then said they would need to review my account to see why I was not receiving alerts for wire transfers. After supposedly reviewing my account and setting up alerts the caller said that we would need to test the alert system to ensure it was working properly, and instructed me to send a decoy wire transfer they gave me the information to put in, then under special instructions provided me an investigation number to enter with decoy wire transfer in parentheses ( the caller stated that this would alert the wire department to not send the transfer ) once I hit send I received an alert, the caller said that we had set up the alerts properly and I can disregard the alert as it will not go through. The caller then informed me that scammers tend to access bank information through XXXX and XXXX due to data breaches and they had been working for USAA since XXXX and seen these types of fraudulent activity many times. They recommended I change all my passwords including USAA and then said they would be canceling my compromised debit card and sending me a new one to my address ( which the caller knew ). I thanked the called for helping me, and the call ended. 20 min after the call ended I received a second alert stating the wire transfer had been completed, which confused me. I called USAA immediately and they informed me that it was not them calling and that I had been a victim of a scam. The lady said she would need to make a fraud report and see what they can do to help me. She kept me on the phone for over an hour and then disconnected the call informing me the only course of action available to help me was to request a wire recall from the wire Dept and gave me a number to call. When I called they were closed and would not be open until Monday morning. I called Monday morning at XXXX and the wire Dept sent the first wire recall. The lady informed me that the fraud department should reach out to me with updates. It was several days and I did not hear anything back so on Friday I reached out to the wire dept/fraud department and was told that it was up to the recipient to give the money back and all they could do was send another wire recall. I was told to go to my local authorities to file a police report in hopes that the police could help me get my money back from the bad guys. I went to the Sheriffs Dept and filed a report. The next day I spoke with the wire dept/fraud dept again. I was told similar things and that the fraud dept would reopen my fraud review and was given the account information of the recipient and told to call XXXX bank if I needed additional assistance. XXXX informed me they could only communicate about this matter with an investigator from my bank or the police. That is where I am at with everything since the event occurred.

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