Consumer complaint received 2021-05-31
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Opening an account
Sub-issue: Account opened as a result of fraud

Complaint:
The high level complaint that I have is about Chase Bank doing a very poor job of opening up a bank account with people planning and acting a vehicle sales scam. This poor management by Chase Bank is harboring bad people scamming innocent people. Below explains my situation of a vehicle sales scam that I encountered by an independent dealer called XXXX XXXX  known as a business entity of XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  who used Chase Bank to scam money. 

I was shopping for a used XXXX XXXX XXXX vehicle to purchase for my wife. One of the websites that I searched was at the XXXX XXXX XXXX website. I found an ad from XXXX XXXX for a 2019 XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX model priced at {$74000.00} and the website address is https : XXXX ( note that it take a while for the webpage to load up ). I called their main contact number and spoke with their Internet Sales person named XXXX XXXX. We had phone conversation and email exchanges to verify the vehicle 's model, year, and features. They also provided me a XXXX XXXX report as well. Once the vehicle info was verified, we reached an agreement of the sales price of {$74000.00} which included the delivery of the vehicle to me as XXXX XXXX was located in XXXX, Louisiana, and I live in XXXX, California. The agreement was that I would wire the money to their bank ( Chase Bank ) and once the money is received, they would deliver the vehicle to me in 7 days after the receipt of money. XXXX XXXX business entity is XXXX  XXXX XXXX dba XXXX XXXX. I spoke via phone call and email with XXXX XXXX ( Internet Sales Manager ), and he provided me with XXXX XXXX business license, Chase Bank account number and wire transfer routing number, Sales Agreement, Vehicle Order, and Commercial Invoice. Once I had reviewed these document info, I went to my XXXX  XXXX XXXX online website and executed the transfer of Money for amount of {$74000.00} to XXXX XXXX bank  ( Chase Bank ) on XX/XX/XXXX. 

It was confirmed on XX/XX/XXXX by Nolas Autos that the money had successfully transferred to their bank ( Chase Bank ). XXXX XXXX communicated to me that the 2019 XXXX XXXX XXXX Performance Model will be delivered on Friday XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ). They indicated that on the morning of XX/XX/XXXX that I would receive a phone call from their delivery truck driver to arrange the delivery of the vehicle to my house. On XX/XX/XXXX morning at XXXX, I received a call from their delivery truck driver, XXXX XXXX indicating that the vehicle delivery was delayed to Monday XX/XX/XXXX due to a delay of one vehicle that they were supposed to pick up in Colorado on their way to my house. Thus, I waited until that following Monday the XX/XX/XXXX. When Monday came, I sent an email to XXXX XXXX asking them to confirm the delivery of the vehicle on Monday, and XXXX responded back to my email confirming of the delivery. To my surprise, the vehicle was never delivered and their delivery truck driver never called me to arrange the delivery. On Tuesday XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ), I called the XXXX XXXX  main number, and XXXX XXXX picked up the call. She explained that she doesn't know why the delivery did not happened and that she will check with XXXX and will call me back. She never called me back, and both XXXX and XXXX can not be reached as they will not pick up the call when I call their main number and I would continually get their busy signal. I sent emails to both, and no response from them. To this day, I am still not able to get hold of them. 

After this incident, I conducted in depth XXXX search of XXXX XXXX, XXXX  XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX XXXX this was a name on their business license ). From this search, I was able to find XXXX XXXX as the General Manager of XXXX XXXX XXXX dealer. I found XXXX XXXX contact info at XXXX and managed to connect with him. The real " XXXX XXXX '' explained to me about XXXX XXXX scam as there were several victims as the scammers were using the name of XXXX XXXX which had closed for business back in 2019. The scammers were also using XXXX XXXX identity for their scams. The real " XXXX XXXX '' advised me to contact the XXXX XXXX Police station and indicated that there is a detective who knows of the XXXX XXXX  scam. I reported this to my local police department, and they managed to speak with XXXX police and informed me that the Detective Detective XXXX XXXX at XXXX is familiar with XXXX XXXX scam and she attested of the identify theft and usage of closed down XXXX XXXX  that the scammers are using. 

I would like to reiterate that the Chase Bank needs to conduct a proper and thorough due diligence when opening up a business account for their customer. In the XXXX XXXX scam that I experience which costed me a huge amount of money, the scammers used a fake business license and stolen identity name of XXXX XXXX. If Chase Bank performs a proper validation of business license and validation of scammers names and identity, this would prevent scammers using such a large bank corporation as Chase Bank to scam people 's money. In the scam incident that I encountered, I trusted the large bank such as the Chase Bank when an independent dealer utilizes Chase Bank 's services as if it was some unknown bank, then I would have felt very suspicious and would have avoided such monetary transaction. 

For this scam incident, I have reported this incident to XXXX California Police. The office who took my report info is the following : Report # XXXX Police Officer : XXXX XXXX, # XXXX Email : XXXX Phone # ; XXXX The XXXX XXXX Police is also very familiar with this XXXX XXXX  scam incidents are there were may victims. The detective who is familiar with this scam is the following person : Detective XXXX XXXX Office Number : XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation