Consumer complaint received 2022-04-21
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I was very stupid and fell for a scam. That is the bottom line. However, it is no excuse for Capital One to treat me, a customer XXXX years, as the criminal. I am a single mother of XXXX working XXXX  different jobs to make ends meet so I am extremely busy and often very distracted. While no excuse, I did not pay as close attention to the emails as I should have. 
On XX/XX/2022, I received an email from a student ( a supposed student ) at the University at which I work. It seemed like an easy ask, easy money, and because it came from the University I didn't question it... so I answered it. On XX/XX/XXXX I replied to the email she stated. I received an email back with all of the supposed information about " having my car wrapped to promote XXXX XXXX. '' and then sent all of my information. 
On XX/XX/XXXX we confirmed everything. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was sent a check for {$2500.00} to deposit into my account. {$2000.00} was to go to the local " XXXX '' who was coming to do my car. We waited for the check to " seemingly '' clear. On Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX, I attempted to send it via XXXX and XXXX and got popups blocking it saying suspicious activity but I thought it meant on MY account. I didn't realize it was them. So I actually CALLED CAPITAL ONE TO ASK ABOUT THIS. The representative I spoke with on XX/XX/XXXX at Capital One recommended that I use my DEBIT CARD INSTEAD OF MY BANK ACCOUNT - " that way it will go through right away, '' he said! Shouldn't he have said something to me about it being a possible scam???? 
Anyway, he was right. It went through. {$1000.00} twice. 
Then silence. Come Monday, I get a text that the specialist didn't work out and they were going to use a different specialist, so they sent another check for {$2500.00}. Everything seemed to be ok, so I deposited this check right before I went to my night job at XXXX. And this is where everything went south. I returned home at XXXX and opened up my banking app to deposit money and saw the first {$2500.00} reversed! That is when I realized I had been scammed. 
I started calling Capital One an hour before they opened. I was absolutely hysterical. I finally got a hold of the fraud protection department and was so hysterical and told them how I wanted to catch this guy and how upset I was. They put me on hold for about 3 minutes. When they came back they said, at this time Capital One has decided to terminate its business relationship with you. We have determined that you are a risk. 

Talk about whiplash! In those 3 minutes, they froze every single account I had including my son 's account - my son who lives in XXXX and was currently on Spring Break in XXXX XXXX, using his Capital One account where he put HIS OWN money that he had worked all semester saving for this trip which was now FROZEN and had no access to! 

He had to borrow money to survive- to eat, to pay for the hotel, the car, everything! I had to borrow money to bring my account to 0 just so they would release his money! I had to borrow money to eat and survive because they froze all of my credit cards and other accounts. I had NOTHING because I fell for a scam! My XXXX XXXX XXXX with nothing because I fell for a scam. Capital One punished my family and me and rewarded this scammer! Now they are taking WEEKS to release the money that is rightly ours while it only took 3 minutes to leave us destitute!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation