Consumer complaint received 2023-09-28
Company: Block, Inc.
State: AZ
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Received phone & text messages from my credit union fraud dept about malware & unauthorized charges on my online bank account. They has me transfer money through cash app & XXXX XXXX via my phone over 5 weeks, XXXX XXXX XXXX telling me its going to the federal reserve to protect my money while the malware is removed. They were not our credit union fraud dept, but it came up on phone that it was, so I believed them & wanted to protect my money. These scammers called me daily to transfer funds telling me the malware was still causing problems & that it was affecting cash app & XXXX XXXX and need to do transactions so the fraud dept & federal reserve can see what's happening. They said they malware was very difficult to remove & they had outside IT companies helping & that the FBI was involved in this case as well. They said my online banking had the malware & they never asked for my account info, but found out they had my login & managed to transfer my money from savings to checking so the cash app & XXXX XXXX transactions would go through. They also had me buy bitcoin as part of the transactions on cash app. I had 4 accounts linked together & they completely drained my accounts for a total of {$80000.00}, mostly through cash app & XXXX XXXX They told me not to change the account login because the malware would alert the hackers of the new login info, so I didn't try to login & trusted this " fraud dept '' that it was protecting me. In the middle of all this, they unleashed over 1000 spam text & emails daily for a few days that disguised any bank notifications I received. The scammers were also able to add my debit card info into their phones to go on a shopping spree in Florida, but I never gave them my card info. or login info. The shopping spree was reimbursed by my bank. My bank refused to reimburse me for cash app & XXXX XXXX because it came from my phone. I disputed the charges on cash app & XXXX XXXX but got nowhere. I also submitted my case to IC3.gov-FBI, local police department & my bank. There is a local police detective working on the case, but that's all. I asked my bank why they didn't find it suspicious & notify me or stop the transactions from going through when there were so many cash app & XXXX XXXX transactions in a month on my account when I very rarely use these apps & they had no answer. The person calling me daily was a woman, no accent and knew how to use my bank app and walked me through all the transactions on cash app XXXX XXXX XXXX She was very empathetic and calm & nice when we spoke. She started each call telling me I was on a recorded line & she was from the credit union fraud dept. & then ended the calls every time with " Have a blessed day ''. After each transaction, she put me on hold to verify it went through, but told me she was speaking with cash app & XXXX XXXX  fraud team to make sure they see the transactions. Only after she didn't call me for a few days did I realize something was strange & went to the credit union & found out we were scammed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation