Consumer complaint received 2022-05-17
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2022, I fell victim to a wire fraud scheme. While shopping for apartments in XXXX XXXX, I signed a falsified lease and initiated a wire transfer in the amount of {$5600.00} to an account at XXXX XXXX XXXX. Within the hour, I realized I was being defrauded when the doorman of the condo confirmed the name given on the lease did not match the name of the current owner of the unit. I immediately called Chase while the wire was still being processed, but was told the department that handled wire transfers would not be open for a few more hours. I then called XXXX who thankfully did have someone available to help. They had already been alerted by the account owner that their account had been compromised. XXXX froze the funds immediately and let me know they'd be watching for a recall request from Chase. I followed up with Chase and requested a wire recall, which they sent to XXXX. I called XXXX on XX/XX/2022 to follow up and they confirmed they received the recall. They notified me that they responded to Chase with a request for a hold harmless or letter of indemnity. This is where all support from Chase stopped. I called their customer service that same day and was told the team that handles authorized wire transfers ( known as XXXX XXXX ) was no longer accepting phone calls and could only be reached by through the Secure Message Center, a digital inbox on Chase.com. I reached out as instructed, explained the situation and request, and was told I'd receive a response within two business days. Two days later on XX/XX/2022, I received a message from XXXX XXXX XXXX that they have acknowledged my request for a hold harmless letter, and that it could take 45-90 days to process. I was also told their Investigations team would reach out to me. Over the next 90 days, I was subject to immense amounts of stress as I received conflicting messages from numerous departments. The XXXX XXXX team proved unresponsive, so I began reaching out to branch bankers at the XXXX XXXX XXXX branch for help. They reached out to XXXX XXXX internally through chat and assured me that the form was coming, the department was just backed up and needed more time. When we continued to hear nothing from the team, they escalated my case to branch escalations. Three separate individuals from branch escalations, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX reached out on separate occasions. Twice, I was told go to a Chase branch to fill out a Hold Harmless form. I went each time and the branch managers had no idea what to do before directing me back to escalations. When I couldn't get ahold of escalations, I spent countless more hours on the phone with customer service, being transferred back and forth between claims and other departments. When it became clear I was being given the runaround, I reached out to several branches in the XXXX XXXX  to hopefully find someone who had experience with this. I was told by a banker at the XXXX XXXX branch that he had dealt with wire fraud before, so we arranged a meeting and contacted customer claims together. We were sent a hold harmless form from claims that I filled out and he notarized before sending to XXXX. I contacted XXXX shortly after, only to find out that this was not at all the form they needed ( the one we filled out was apparently for individual check fraud ) .This incredibly taxing experience took place over a full 90 days, but it was made bearable by the reassurance that this form was on its way. I reached the end of the given window without any word or contact from XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX, the two departments I was told I'd be contacted by. On day 95, I once again reached out to claims in hope of an update. They bluntly told me " Chase does not issue Hold Harmless letters for authorized transfers, as it's a scam not fraud. '' I tried to explain that this ran counter to EVERYTHING I'd been told over the last 95 days, and the department did not care. Defeated, I reached back out to XXXX and was told that they had not once been contacted by Chase over the entirety of this ordeal. Without that hold harmless, they would not be able to complete the recall, and my funds would sit frozen indefinitely. Chase failed to contact me as promised and didn't even have the decency to actually investigate my case. If they had merely contacted the receiving institution, they would have found how little risk there would be in issuing this letter since all the funds were frozen and the recipient had already alerted XXXX to fraudulent activity.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation