Consumer complaint received 2023-05-09
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: IN
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Can't close your account

Complaint:
I had fraud on my personal account on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX I believe for {$12000.00}. Someone printed a fake check and Fifth Third allowed it to go through. I reported it and closed the account. I found out later that the XXXX drawn on my account was never reported as fraud because I got my money back which makes no sense. Several days later I deposited a check for {$150000.00} into my XXXX. Trust account. I am an XXXX  The following day there was fraud on my trust account in the amount of {$300.00} I went to the bank frantically though it was a Saturday. I was freaking out because my XXXX  money was at stake. The teller assured me she froze my account. I called Fifth Third later that day on the XXXX number and was told no that it was not frozen and there was nothing they could do until Monday. I was told I needed to contact the domestics department. I kept asking what the domestic department meant and kept saying I'm in the United States I don't know what you're talking about and they could not help me and just said I needed to come back Monday. No one seem to understand that this {$150000.00} was at stake. And it was not frozen. I went in on Monday and filed a fraud complaint for the check. Again this is XXXX money. It's a special account for XXXX. I switched banks from XXXX to Fifth Third because of bank fraud before. But nobody seems to understand what I'm talking about. I went in frantically yesterday and told them I wanted to close the account. I had discovered over the weekend. The only thing that made sense was that the {$150000.00} was fraudulent. Again I'm an attorney. For one month I have been dealing with a XXXX  XXXX and had been negotiating a settlement agreement with XXXX XXXX XXXX dealing with their HR vice president. I had negotiated the settlement and was to receive XXXX out of the XXXX. Because Fifth Third was not helping me I decided to call XXXX XXXX the bank. The check was drawn on. In looking for numbers for XXXX XXXX and looking at the Check I realize the check could be fraudulent because the address on the lower left-hand corner was a branch that was permanently closed. Suddenly I think I understood what happened. Monday I went into the bank which was yesterday and I told him I wanted to close out the account and explained all of this. I was told that I could not close the account because the deposit was pending. I kept explaining I didn't care that. I did not want that money that it wasn't real money and kept explaining that someone was going to try to cash bigger checks on the account. Meanwhile, I also called XXXX XXXX XXXX yesterday morning and confirmed that the entire XXXX  and the entire work I did on the case for one month was fraudulent. I was talking to a fake HR person. There was fake letterhead used and there was a fake severance agreement and the check was fake. They said XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX and XXXX not XXXX XXXX. So I turned over all that information to the XXXX XXXX fraud department. Again I tried explaining this to the manager at Fifth Third. She's a very nice person XXXX who has helped me for years. But she continually told me I could not close the account with the pending deposit. I left hoping for the best. This morning which is XX/XX/2023 I looked at my trust bank balance because I had a feeling things were going to go wrong. I almost had a XXXX XXXX and XXXX and was bawling my eyes out and shaking from head to toe. My bank balance is- {$500000.00}. A half {$1.00} XXXX. I thought my life is over. My career is over. Five years ago when something like this happened, it triggered a disciplinary investigation which I went through for about two years and it was another nightmare, and it ruined my life, causing me into a deep, dark XXXX. I saw it coming again and I decided if this happens this time I'm quitting the XXXX XXXX XXXX and giving up my lol license even though I did not do anything, and this is all fraud. I raced to the bank only to find out that is how Fifth Third handles fraud an account. They are the ones that made it the - {$500000.00}. But no one ever notified me they were going to do that. You can imagine how a person would feel seeing that on their bank account. I thought my house is going to be taken I'm going to have a judgment against you. I'm gon na owe all of this money. It was horrible. Again freaking out. I called my attorney that I had three years ago. XXXX XXXX, who specializes in Disciplinary issues and trust accounts. He gave me some advice which I had already followed the day before. But he told me immediately to get in tight contact with the XXXX department so I contacted the bank again. I had left a message for a manager to call me back and never got a call back today. I believe I talk to an assistant manager, XXXX, who is very nice and who has been helpful in the past. But again nobody there seems to understand these accounts. I told her what my attorney said, and asked for numbers or names for the legal department and for the XXXX department. She kept saying this is fraud. This is fraud. You have to contact the fraud department. I asked for the name and number of the person that XXXX spoke with in fraud and she said she can not give out that information. I kept saying I need whoever 's in charge of XXXX and she said that she could not give out that information that they just scan information that they don't have those names and numbers that it's the back office. I kept saying well these are real people you have real lawyers there Hass to be somebody that's in corporate that knows about these types of accounts. What's the point of having a trust account like this to manage XXXX  funds if nobody there knows what it entails or how important it is to make safeguards. Artificial intelligence these days can pass the bar exam and become a doctor practically but you mean to tell me that banks don't have the technology to catch fraud. Kindergartners could've written that {$300.00} check. It did not have my name in the upper left-hand corner. It did not have my signature or name in the little written corner. It looks nothing like a real check at all. Anybody could print one. So when I try to make transactions and there's fraud alerts, it stops me from trying to spend my own money, but when someone else tries to put checks through my own account, there's no safeguards whatsoever so talking to XXXX, round and round and round I kept asking for names who is in charge of XXXX  Then I asked her do you even know what they XXXX stands for and she could not answer me and she kept going round and round again I'm sure she's a very nice person, but why do these people not know what this is and how important it is? Fifth Third is one of the banks that's on the preferred list for the state of Indiana as recommended by the Indiana Supreme Court disciplinary commission. That is why I picked them because I thought they knew what they were doing. In any event I am very concerned about this negative half {$1.00} XXXX because when you Have a trust account that's in the negative there is an automatic trigger to notify the disciplinary commission that the account is overdrawn because they think people are stealing plant money. So I wanted to get a hold of XXXX at the instruction of my attorney to tell them do not trigger the disciplinary commission because you're the ones that put me in the negative. I did not put myself in the negative. The fraud did not even put me in the negative. This is not something that needs to be reported to the disciplinary commission because it's it's not anything on my end. No one seems to be able to help me. I don't know what to do and I'm at a loss. My livelihood is at stake. My law license is at stake. Regardless, if you're at fault or not, once investigation starts, it literally will take up all my time for the next two years. They have caused me so much emotional distress and I feel like I can't get any answers any help or any phone numbers. The fraud department isn't open on the weekends, which is ridiculous. Nobody seems to be taking any of this seriously whatsoever. I'm likely going to report this to the FBI because of the detail involved. This XXXX gave me bank account information of his. Presumably he also gave me an address in Arizona to send money to and also give me addresses in Texas. I am just at a loss. And I need help immediately I need to get in touch with AI also department of Fifth Third Immediately and I need them to know that this is not something that I did and there should be no notification to the disciplinary commission. If there's any notification whatsoever, they need to write a letter saying that they did this.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation