Consumer complaint received 2015-07-16
Company: M&T BANK CORPORATION
State: ME
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Other bank product/service
Issue: Making/receiving payments, sending money

Complaint:
Found RV ( motorhome ) on XXXX interested in purchasing. Contact seller. Seller sends e-mail back with requested info. Seller indicated transaction to take place via XXXX motors. I receive invoice and am told to call XXXX XXXX number on invoice for wire instructions. I wire {$7800.00} from my account at XXXX XXXX XXXX to " EBPA '' account held at XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX Payment confirmation and shipping information received from " XXXX XXXX '' When the motorhome did not show up as indicated I called " XXXX XXXX '' to get after hours voicemail. Contact again on XXXX/XXXX/15 however, phone # does not dial, no ringtone, no voicmail. So I go to main XXXX page for anothe contact #. I call XXXX and give them the tracking number from my invoice only to be told that they did not have that invoice on file and there was no such tracking # in their system. I immediately hand up and contact my wire and initiate a " wire recall due to fraud ''. M & T bank is notified on XX/XX/XXXX & XX/XX/XXXX. I was told to call on XX/XX/XXXX for status. XXXX had rec 'd no response from M & T. Called again on XXXX told same thing. Decided I was not going to wait and that I would start contacting M & T directly. Was finally able to get an online teller @ M & T to convey the fraudulent activity to their Sec. Ops Dept. ( They would not speak w/ me directly as I was not their account holder. Told her that I had contacted Banking Commisssion ( which I had ) & that I was quite confident SOMEONE in their security dept would want to know that there bank was being used to perpetuate FRAUD & LARCENY. At that point she put me on hold for quite a while and then came back and took my information. I gave her the $ amount, the recipient Name and account number. I was put on hold again for a lengthy time. When she returned she indicated that although she could not divulge any details to me that the account had been flagged as being used for fraudulent activity and a HOLD was placed on it. Further I was told to " PUSH the issue '' with my bank and that my bank ( XXXX ) must submit a Hold Harmless Agreement. ( Having worked in banking for many years I then used M & Ts automated system along with the recipients info that I DID HAVE and did a " Check Verification '' for the amount of {$7800.00}. The system DID indicate the account was still with M & T and their were funds available to cover a {$7800.00} check. This was on XXXX/XXXX/15 at approximately XXXX XXXX. ) I then contacted XXXX again, spoke with XXXX in the " Escalated wire services dept. ) who indicated to me exactly when the SWIFT requests were sent to M & T and specifically what they said. Both indicated to return the money as it was fraudulent activity. She also stated that XXXX would not just send out the HH agrmt that M & T must request it via responding to the XXXX requests. I then phoned M & T to state they must request HH agrmt request via original XXXX request sent to them either on XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX. She then consults someone from " our lawyer room '' and was told they did not know what a SWIFT request was and they they would only respond to a " Service Request ''. During the time I was doing this a message was sent to my local XXXX branch stating " account holder no longer with bank, sender to contact them directly ''. The next morning my local branch rep called to tell me the response. I told her I had personally been in touch w/ M & T the day before and was told the account was put on hold. I also told her that this response was unacceptable and that I wanted to be contacted by someone from XXXX 's wire department that had authority to take some action. I hung up with her and then used M & T 's automated system again, ( XXXX/XXXX/15 @ XXXX a.m. ) and did another 'check verification ' for {$7800.00}. System indicates there are funds to cover that amount. I never heard back from anyone at XXXX, as requested. I also did it again just now on XXXX @ XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation