Consumer complaint received 2022-07-29
Company: PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
I have been a member and depositor to PenFed Credit Union, " PenFed '' ( originally Pentagon Federal Credit Union ) for over 50 years. This complaint concerns fraudulent electronic fund withdrawals made to my " premium online savings account '' These unauthorized withdrawals were timely reported by me to PenFed ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS BY TELEPHONE, IN WRITING AND IN PERSON. Nevertheless, at this time the largest part of the fraudulently withdrawn funds, consisting of over {$110000.00}, have not been even provisionally deposited back to my account, although I reported the most recent and still unresolved fraud on XX/XX/2022, by telephone and followed up by written communication received by PenFed on XX/XX/2022. ( See attached copy of letter ) On XX/XX/2022, I went personally into the PenFed branch at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, and spent approximately three hours in the office of XXXX XXXX to attempt to resolve the issue, determine if the bank needed anything additional, and to try to obtain a refund of the funds. I finally left with a check only covering the balance of the funds in the account which had not been withdrawn, and a promise that the fraud department told XXXX that I would have the funds redeposited into my account either the following Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, or no later than Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX, three weeks ( 15 business days ) after my initial report of the latest fraud, which had been on July 6. ( See attached letter sent to PenFed ) The first time this happened was while I was away for 30 days from XXXX XXXX to XXXX XXXX Upon returning, my local XXXXXXXX XXXX contacted me to ask if I had authorized a {$4000.00} electronic funds transfer from one of my accounts. I replied that I had not, and they informed me then that my XXXX account had been " hacked ''. 
Only because of the warning from I had gotten from XXXX did I look into and become aware of the much larger amounts which had been and continued to be withdrawn from my PenFed account, beginning the day I left for vacation on XX/XX/XXXX. AT NO TIME IN ANY WAY HAD OR HAS PENFED CONTACTED ME TO REQUEST CONFIRMATION OF NUMEROUS ACH TRANSFERS OF AMOUNTS AS HIGH AS {$98000.00} ( MADE ON XX/XX/2022 ). 
PenFed redeposited the first fraudulent transfers covering the period while I was on vacation within 48 hours after I reported them. They then gave me new account numbers and a new member number and said the funds would thereafter be safe. ( a false promise ). Instead, they allowed the hacker to take over my accounts with them, and I received an email informing me that my account setup ( of the new accounts ) had been successful and I would now be able to transfer funds from PenFed to the hacker 's account at XXXX XXXX. I did not set up the new accounts or authorize any transfers to and I have no connections or knowledge of XXXXXXXX XXXX, except that it is the same bank I was told the original fraudulent transfers had gone to, which PenFed had already reimbursed me for. Therefore, I telephoned PenFed, which has no local branches closer than several hours away in New York City, to report this. Also, since the hacker had " set up '' the new accounts, I was unable to obtain online access to my accounts or determine if and how much money had been fraudulently transferred. I was advised by a telephone representative that my balance had dropped over {$100000.00} ( see attached letter detailing my contacts with PenFed and the amounts fraudulently withdrawn. 
As of this date, over 3 weeks since I reported the fraud to PenFed and after having confirmed it in writing and in person, I am still owed the amount of {$110000.00} plus interest and costs. 
I have called on an almost daily basis and far from receiving my money, my call today answered by " XXXX XXXX told me that the Fraud Department now needs another 30 days to investigate the problem and some documents signed by me. This contradicts what XXXX XXXX told me on the XXXX  that I would have the money by Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX. 
It also contradicts what XXXX told me that they had everything including my written statements that they needed to finish their investigation. 
As a result, I am complaining to you about the following unfair and misleading and false claims of PenFed, as well as their failure to at least provisionally credit my account within what the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau says mush be within 10 business days.

1. PenFed never at any time contacted me to tell me they needed anything else to resolve my claim 2. PenFed made false and contradictory statements to me on numerous occasions 3. PenFed, through their " XXXX '', on XXXX XXXX told me they were locking my accounts to prevent further transfers and despite that promise they released another fraudulent transfer of {$8700.00} to the hacker on XXXX XXXX. I consider this to be theft by PenFed which should be immediately reversed and for which they should be punished and otherwise held accountable 4. PenFed should be sanctioned for failing to comply with government requirements to issue credits in such situations within 10 ( in some cases 20 ) business days which has already been exceeded, and for which they now inform me they need another 30 days! 
In addition to the costs of an entire day spent traveling to New York City to attempt to resolve this issue and paying for gas, tolls and parking fees, I have paid for XXXX to deliver the letter to them detailing the withdrawals, I have been late with other payments owed because of inability to withdraw my funds, my health has suffered due to the stress of this situation, now going on almost two months, I have NEVER been permitted to speak directly to the " fraud department '', only employees, most of whom are working from at home or remote locations, and have had to be told the details each time I call PenFed, at a waste of my time of generally one hour daily just to find out my balance, since I am locked out of my accounts due to the fraud. 
5. I have received numerous emails from PenFed telling me that I have a message, and telling me I had to click a link to read the message. When I click, it asks me to log in to my account, which THEY WILL NOT LET ME DO!! Nor have their " telephone bankers '' been able to tell me what the messages say??? Not only do they not seem to realize that they are sending me something that THEY KNOW I CAN NOT ACCESS, it does not seem like safe practice in such a case to ask me to " click '' any link. ' 6. The telephone bankers do not ask sufficient questions or utilize secondary verification methods to verify if I am the person I say I am when I call in. When I complained of this to one banker, she said she could see that the phone I was calling from was my authorized cell phone. ANYONE should know that the caller ID readout can be easily faked. It is quite obvious that the hacker knows my name, date of birth and social security number, which is all I am generally asked for. 
I am requesting that you obtain my funds to be redeposited so that I have immediate access to them and also that the PenFed credit union be sanctioned for such poor, dangerous, inefficient, ineffective and unsafe practices, as well as for misrepresenting so many things to me, for NEVER telling me what else they needed, if anything, to get back my money until today when they told " XXXX '' to tell me they needed something in writing ( which XXXX said they already had ). 
My partner, XXXX XXXX, is also a beneficiary of this account and was present at and confirm all conversations, and details stated above. Incidentally, he was also hacked in his PenFed premium online savings account.

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