Consumer complaint received 2020-09-28
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: GA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
About 7-9 weeks ago I received an email acknowledging my upgrade to XXXX XXXX XXXX, which I had done, FROM THE XXXX WEBSITE, USING MY XXXX  ID AND PASSWORD. 

The email i received had the XXXX logo and usual text at the top of the email. It was someone who said they worked there and they were just acknowledging the upgrade. 

A couple weeks later, I was driving down the road when I received a call from a number I had stored as XXXX. They told me that I could reduce the number of devices covered from 5 computers and 5 phones to 2 each, and recieve a discount, this seemed OK, and so they asked me if had access to my computer, and i said no, but they could call me back a couple of hours later and I would be there. 

A couple of hours later, I was in my office, they called back and they said they would transfer me to the upgrade dept. 

They transfered me and they told me they were XXXX XXXX and that they needed access to my computer via remote and that they were going to be downloading some files onto my computer to do the update. So they downloaded a system called XXXX XXXX and asked me to click on it. All of this was no different than what XXXX XXXX had done in the past when I had problems with viruses, etc. 

After a minute or so, they said that they needed to issue me a refund, and that they needed access to my bank to do it, and asked me to open my bank software app to give me the refund. After this he popped a black window up on the desktop that had a bunch of text in it and ended in a line that had a $ sign at the end of the line. 

He asked me if i saw the line with the $ sign and told me that the refund was going to be done in 2 parts, a {$100.00} and a {$290.00}. Next he told me to type in XXXX and it would appear at the end of the line. So I typed XXXX, but I immediately noticed that the decimal point didn't take. And he says ... oh no! You didn't hit the decimal point, which refunds you {$10000.00} not {$100.00}. This is your fault, you see on your bank screen that the system has refunded you {$10.00}, this is your fault, you should have known that your decimal key wasn't working! This your fault, we need you to refund us {$9600.00} today to fix this, I'm going to text you the info you need to wire the money to, so head to your bank and I will text you the info ...

So I headed to the bank which was only open to drive thru customers due to Corona Virus. So I went to the bank drive thru and told them I needed to do a wire transfer from my account to a wire location, so she asked me to send an email to the bank manager and that she would get it setup and would meet me at the front door to gave me sign it. 

So I said OK and copied the email text to an email to XXXX XXXX and she got started on it. I then went around to the front door and signed the forms. 

It wasn't until the next day, when i logged into my bank account, that realized what had happened was that the {$10000.00} they had put in my business account had come from my XXXX XXXX, and that I had wired them the {$9600.00} without them haven giving me the {$10000.00}. I tried to call them back no one would answer. I then called the bank and told them to put a freeze on my accounts, and they told me to file this report. 

The first number that called me that i called back was : XXXX, the other number was : XXXX. I have the wiring info and provide it when asked. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

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 explanation