Consumer complaint received 2017-10-09
Company: REGIONS FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TN
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I was victim of a fraud scam. Around the XXXX of XXXX 2017 I applied online for a XXXX XXXX job on several sites. About a week later I received in the mail a letter from XXXX XXXX with instructions on how to do the job and also a check attached for {$3300.00}. I was skeptical but I researched the company and they were reputable so I proceeded to deposit the check into my checking account using my phone. I purposely DID NOT choose to have access to the money early so that I could see if this was for real. A few days later the money showed up in my account. It was not listed as pending either. I was very excited that this was real and proceeded to follow the very detailed instr ( uctions on how to do the jobs. The first one was to go to XXXX and do a XXXX XXXX  for {$1900.00}. The second was to go to XXXX and do a XXXX XXXX for {$900.00}. The third was to go to XXXX and buy {$100.00} of whatever you wanted and you got to keep the products. The final {$400.00} was your fee for completing the jobs. You were then going to fill out very detailed questionnaires on all of the places service and cleanliness. I did these jobs on XXXX XXXX, which was a Friday and kept all of the receipts to submit. Well, the following Friday I try to log into my Regions account and it will not let me so I call the Regions and they tell me I have to go in to a branch to reset my password. They would not tell my why. I go into the bank and after about an hour of the rep trying to figure out what was going on he finally tells me that the check for the {$3300.00} had come back as fraudulent and my account was overdrawn by {$2000.00}. I was in complete shock since I had specifically NOT requested that that money be available early and the fact that I thought it had cleared since the money showed up in my account and was NOT pending. XXXX pending items show up in red as pending ) I immediately went to the police and filed a report. They asked me if I wanted to press charges if they found the perpetrators to which I said yes. I returned to the bank the following day with the police report in hand and an assurance from the rep that everything would be okay since I did have a police report only to find out that I would be responsible for the full amount of the check! I was the victim of a crime and I would be the one who paid for it!!!! Furthermore, the bank made me feel like I was the criminal!!!!! I was horrified!!! So now I was not only victimized but I couldnt pay my rent either! It was the bank who made the funds available early specifically after I told them not to and the funds were not listed as pending. It should be the band that covers the check, not me! They are insured for things like this. So I transfer money from my Florida accounts and I needed to have access to it right away to pay my rent so I have my mother put {$4000.00} CASH into our shared savings account so that I could cover the negative {$2000.00} balance and leave me with {$2000.00} for rent and bills. I then go to the bank the following morning to pull it out and they would not give me my money!!! MY money that was deposited into MY account and was CASH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so furious with them. This XXXX gives me a letter to give to my landlord stating Ill have it tomorrow. I went into the bank again the next morning and they were saying again that I couldnt have the money. Then he says well, you can have the money but the only way you can have it is to close out your accounts. I wanted to leave the accounts open for a week so that I could pay all of my bills online that needed to be paid and then I would close out my accounts with Regions ( because I was NOT going to stay with them after this ) and go to a new bank. Its like they were saying XXXX, we dont want your business anymore. Again, they made me feel like I was the one who committed a crime! I wasnt good enough for their business anymore. I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS BANK AGAIN ANY ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE SHOULD BE VERY CAREFUL AND NOT EVER BE A VICTIM OF A CRIME OR FRAUD WHILE BANKING WITH THEM BECAUSE THEY WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR IT.LITERALLY!!!!

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