Consumer complaint received 2022-09-06
Company: CENTRAL BANCOMPANY, INC
State: MO
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I was selling a piece of furniture on XXXX. I had found what I thought was a seller. they mailed me a check that was what I think was very official. It had watermarks on it and it had security lines. They sent me a check for payment that I received on XX/XX/XXXX and then informed me that the check would include the cost for the item I was selling and also money to pay a moving company to transport the piece to their home. 

I went into the bank after I deposited the check I talked to the teller involved and she contacted their resolution center for confirmation. I tried to contact them to insure that the check was fully deposited before I would give any money to anyone else. They told me that the check would be cleared by XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. I contacted them back on XX/XX/XXXX. This is when they informed me that once the check is cleared that there is no way for the money to be pulled out of my account. So i then confirmed that the check was cleared and they told me it was. With this information i decided to wait a couple days to just make sure that everything was fine. 

I sent over money using XXXX for this delivery that was meant to be scheduled. This took XXXX days to send all the money that was meant for the delivery. so i sent money over XX/XX/XXXX for {$1500.00}, XX/XX/XXXX for {$320.00}, and XX/XX/XXXX for {$600.00}. These transactions were sent through under the false pretense of delivery. 

Later in the day on XX/XX/XXXX the check that we were given bounced. The check we received were from a company and it seems that the checks were stolen which is why they looked so official. As soon as this check bounced we were within central bank trying to talk to their customer service rep about what to do for the fraud. This is when I was informed by XXXX of their employees that it takes up to XXXX full business day for a check to be fully deposited into the account. The customer service rep told me that we are liable for any transfers that are made through XXXX because we are liable for those and that even though we were told by their customer service members that everything was safe and that there was no way for the check to be pulled they are not liable at all for this transfer. Mentioned that it was a good " training opportunity ''. I'm Personally out {$2500.00} due to a false sense of security that was built upon this employee not understanding how the checks work. 

After talking with this customer service rep i did some research into the situation and found Regulation XXXX that outlines unauthorized XXXX and the XXXX XXXX XXXX. With this i found that the CFPB has put out statements like " a consumer is entitled to receive the liability protections of regulation XXXX, even when that consumer acted negligently ''. 

This was the banks defense on why my case does not constitute as fraud or a scam because I negligently made the money transfer and there for does not constitute an Unauthorized EFT and therefore does not warrant protection under fraudulent coverage. This is directly in contradiction to Regulation XXXX. 

I called the disputes department of the bank and opened a dispute into the Frequently XXXX transfer on XX/XX/XXXX. The bank was very rude and reluctant to even open the claim for me and laughed at me when i tried to outline the dates of when everything happened. I had expressed to them that regulation XXXX requires that I notify the establishment within XXXX business days and i was informing them that I had originally contacted the bank the day of the fraudulent pull from my account. The disputes rep laughed and said " yea I'm sure the dates are definitely going to matter with the final resolution coming to you ''. They informed me that central has no mode for me to check on this and that I would have to wait up to 10 days to receive notification of their " resolution '' for me to come by mail. 

I received my letter in the mail on XX/XX/XXXX. It states that " The investigation has concluded. Based on the investigation, It has been determined no error occurred and no credit is owed to you in relation to this claim. The claim is now closed. The service which was requested from the merchant was a transfer of funds, the merchant completed the service therefore we have no dispute rights ''.

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