Consumer complaint received 2022-04-12
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: SC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Can't close your account

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2022 I received a debit card in the mail for a checking account which I did not open with USAA bank. I am unable to open an account with USAA because I am not retired or active military, nor do I have any immediate family in the military who banks with USAA, which are requirements to open an account. I contacted USAA on XX/XX/XXXX to inquire about the debit card I received but member services and the fraud department both refused to give me any information regarding the account because I could not provide them with a member number which I explained why I didn't have. When I asked to have the accounts closed because they were in my name and 100 % fraudulent I was told by XXXX in the fraud department that she could not complete my request because I could not prove the account was mine. After a very frustrating conversation she very rudely told me to have confidence in their security department because they did their own in house investigations and they would look into the account and in 1 to 3 business days determine if the account was fraudulent or not and decide if the account should be closed. She discouraged the idea that local law enforcement would be helpful because she said they wouldn't provide any information to them either. I asked if I would be notified one way or another or if I could call back to find out what was decided and she told me no, because I was not a member. I had a coworker who was victim of the same exact ploy a week prior to my receiving the debit card and she had determined that multiple accounts were open in her name. So I asked XXXX if she could tell me if there were any other accounts open in my name because I would also like to mark them as fraudulent and have them investigated ASAP but she rudely explained to me it was impossible to have more than one account in the same persons name. She proved to be very wrong because as of today, XX/XX/XXXX, I have confirmation that at least FIVE fraudulent accounts with USAA are/were open with my information. 

Each time I have called USAA to try and get my arms around this situation I have had to sit on hold for a ridiculous amount of time, and sometimes I'm not even able to get through because the phone line goes dead after a little over 2 hours. I have spoken with one other USAA representative, XXXX, on XX/XX/XXXX who was much more cooperative and concerned about the issue than XXXX was. He explained to me that the thief ( ves ) opened all of the accounts on the same day before the system could recognize that the same information was being used for multiple accounts, then soon after the accounts were overdrafted by transferring money from one fraudulent account to another and the amount withdrawn before penalties occurred. 

I have received 4 letters from USAA stating I owe them what totals to {$770.00}. XXXX assured me the 4 accounts I knew about at the time would be closed by the end of the day, but when I tried to call back I was unable to get through to anyone to get confirmation. I plan to call again until I can get a document stating that the accounts are closed and that USAA recognizes that I am not responsible for any of the debt. I understand the ploy is not necessarily USAA 's fault, however they were not at all easy to work with in figuring this issue out and I would think a military bank would have better security measures than to allow a ploy such as this one to take place. I asked for a phone number, email address, or the DoD number used to create the account so that I could pass it on to law enforcement in hopes that something more could be done to find the person ( s ) responsible and was told the information could not be provided to me. I can only hope that USAA is taking that information and actually attempting to follow up on it so that there may be a chance the person ( s ) holding/using my information will be caught. 

This experience has caused extreme stress and I've had to take several measures to try and protect my credit from being affected/damaged by this. So far I have placed a fraud alert on my credit report, filed an identity theft report with the police, filled out numerous complaints ( Department of Consumer Affairs, IC3, Federal Trade Commission ) and I'm in the process of working with the IRS to have a pin # placed on my social security number for tax filing protection purposes. 

This same ploy was used with myself and two other coworkers ' information. They also had difficulty getting USAA to understand and assist with the situation. We believe our information was stolen through the company we work for but the company has been uncooperative in our efforts to have this investigated and they continue to tell us there is nothing proving that the data breach occurred at work. We wish that a law enforcement agency would assist us in gathering information from USAA regarding the accounts that were opened so that we would have some comfort in knowing someone might be caught and prosecuted for this. We have no way of knowing if/when our information will be used again and have no easy way of preventing it from happening again. A simple attempt at locating the person ( s ) responsible would help ease our frustrations.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation