Consumer complaint received 2022-02-25
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TN
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:
To preface, this is the third time my bank account has been compromised in a month with Fifth Third Bank. They have done the absolute least to help me in this frightful situation. I am filing a complaint because I want my story to be known not only with the Bureau, but also among fellow prospective customers of Fifth Third Bank, so that they may be aware of what they would be getting themselves into. 

A month ago, I came home from work and discovered a letter in the mail from Fifth Third stating that a phone number had been added to my account. Of course, I did not recognize the phone number and so I called Customer Services to remove this number and implement changes to help me protect my account. All they did was remove the number and create a new checking account to be linked to my debit card. When I asked about who would have done this, if I should create all new accounts instead of just the checking, and if they were going to look into it further to make sure nothing else happened, they told me they felt as though everything they could and should do was done and that it would " probably '' be fine. 

A month later, Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX, I went on lunch break from my job. As I was about to pay for my sandwich, I went into my banking app to determine that I had enough money on my debit card to cover the purchase. Upon logging into my banking app, I noticed that my savings account was in overdraft for the amount of XXXX dollars and some change. All of my savings had been to sent in an online transaction to XXXX XXXX, a bank I have never done business with. Not only that, but the hacker managed to somehow override my lack of overdraft protection services and were able to put my account in the negative. Luckily, I had enough cash on me to pay for my lunch and I quickly ran to my car to call my bank and sort this out. Unfortunately, I had no idea the amount of stress I would endure from this in the days that would follow. 

I called my local branch on and spoke with a nice gentleman about the ordeal. He managed to flag the fraudulent transaction and told me to reach out to Fraud Detection Services and go from there. I waited on hold to speak with Fraud Detection Services for about 20 minutes. This wait time was ridiculous in and of itself but ended up being the shorter of the wait times I would experience with them. After speaking with someone on the line, they informed me that I would have to wait until the next morning to see if the payment had posted before I could even get my money back. Keep in mind, this hacker took all of my money and then some, so I only had cash on me to get through the rest of the day and I was already running low on gas in my car. My bank did not offer to provide me with any kind of a cushion so that I could get through the day. I ended up going into the branch and speaking with the same gentleman from before who was able to create all new accounts for me, with the exception of the breached account. Reason being, we could not create a new account until that fraudulent transaction had not posted. 

The next morning, I logged into my banking app and saw that the fraudulent transaction did not post. I was incredibly relieved but just as quickly horrified to see that there was another fraudulent transaction sent to XXXX XXXX again via online transaction. I immediately called Fraud Detection Services and was on hold with them for 30 minutes before getting to speak with somebody. I had to explain the situation to the man on the other line who then had the audacity to ask me " Well how can I help you then? '' I laughed and replied with " I don't know, how CAN you help me? '' The only advice he could offer was for me to go into the branch, withdraw all of my money in cash and wait for the transaction to not post before depositing it again. So essentially, if I lost the cash or was robbed, they would not be liable for that. He then froze my account but told me he could not guarantee that this would deter the hacker ( s ) again. That call ended up being of no help, and so I called my local branch once again and the same gentleman offered sincere condolences and mentioned how embarrassed he was that Fraud Detection Services could be so unhelpful. He flagged this second fraudulent charge and told me to wait another day to make sure it didn't post before we could delete the account and make a new one. Keep in mind, I had bills due that day that I had to figure out how to pay since my account was essentially on lockdown. 

Fast forward to this morning ... .I tried calling my local branch to see if the second fraudulent transaction had posted or not, because I was not able to login to my banking app due to it being frozen. I was not able to get in touch with that branch employee so the receptionist took a message for me. An hour later, I still received no call back from him so I made the decision to contact Customer Service. They then transferred me over to Disputes where I was informed that the transaction had indeed posted. After my account being frozen and the fraudulent transaction from 2 days prior being on their radar, you would think that this would not have happened, but it turned out to not be the case. I quickly started sobbing and asked the man if I could at least close that account so that no more fraudulent transactions could take place. He told me that I could, but then if I were to file a dispute, it would be mailed to me in a check and that would take up to 45 days for me to receive. I told him that would not work for me and asked what my other options were. He said I could then just file a dispute and it would take 8 business days for them to review and investigate before they would deposit the money in my account. I told the man on the line that I wished to speak with a supervisor. He put me on hold for 30 minutes before getting back with me and saying that I could not speak with a supervisor because " they were having technical difficulties. '' So I huffed and puffed, filed a dispute with him, and got in my car to race to my local branch ... once again. 

I walk into the gentleman 's office and we started laughing about this whole situation because he's not even supposed to be handling this kind of ordeal. But, he felt so bad about the incompetence of these other two departments and probably wished to save me as a customer. We ended up being on hold with Fraud Detection Services for the glorious amount of 51 minutes before getting to speak with a single soul. They were only able to unfreeze my account for 2 minutes so that I could pay another bill using my credit card, since my debit card was now inactive due to them closing it. After freezing my account back, they confirmed that I would have to wait 8 business days to get the money back but they removed the freeze on my mobile banking portion, so that I could at least check my account each day to ensure no other fraudulent transactions take place on that breached account. 

Here comes the real kicker. After telling this branch employee that once we get this resolved I am more than likely switching to a different bank, he informed me that " If I would like, '' I can have the option of " checking a box '' on my account that allows them to essentially temporarily pause any large transactions and require my approval before they go through. In other words, if I would have been informed by my bank beforehand that this was even an option or if they would have just followed the protocol of other wonderful banks who already have this in place with their customers, this whole nightmare would have never happened.

I have gotten in touch with my 2 employers to request paper checks for the time being seeing that my breached account was the one linked to my direct deposits. I didn't want this hacker possibly seeing that I had money coming into it. I have never been so stressed in my life over the course of a few days and after this gets sorted out, I vow to never do business with Fifth Third Bank again. I will also be spreading the word about my story to fellow friends, family, and colleagues so that they can avoid this as well. 

I apologize for the essay, but wanted to make sure I got every detail in there that I could. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I also really hope that we can catch the person who did this.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation