Consumer complaint received 2023-01-24
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: WA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX while reviewing my credit monitoring report, I noticed an entry that a US Bank account ( joint account with my wife ) was closed. I asked my wife if she knew anything about this and she did not. The next day she made an appointment with our neighborhood US Bank branch in XXXX, WA to investigate this issue. She asked the US Bank employee for more information and he pulled up our account on his computer. He said, It looks like your husband took out nearly all your money. He printed off a copy of the transaction and pointed out the customer signature line. My wife looked at it and remarked, Thats not my husbands signature!. The account had a balance of {$87.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, there was a fraudulent withdrawal of {$87.00} to this account to leave a net balance of {$0.00}, an amount below the monthly maintenance fee assessed for a low balance ( {$6.00} ), but not enough to close the account. The withdrawal occurred at a branch office over one hundred miles from my home. 

When she brought the copy of the transaction to show me, the signature was obviously forged and not a very good one. My wife contacted US Bank again and the bank employee suggested we fill out two fraud investigation forms, ( Unauthorized Paper Debit, and Affidavit of Unauthorized Paper Debit ). We did so and submitted the paperwork to the XXXX, WA US Bank branch. Several weeks passed and we did not hear anything so my wife called the US Bank fraud investigation number to check on the case. The fraud office denied our claim and said that we should have caught it sooner. 

I have not visited any US Bank branch in years and have never withdrawn any money from this account. The debit card has never been used. This account has had very little activity and no checks have been written on it in years. I have not had any identity theft issues with any of my other financial accounts nor have I lost any personal forms of identification. Because of the low-level amount of activity on this account, the only other people besides my wife and I that know of this account are US Bank employees . 

I believe I know what happened. A dishonest US Bank employee was looking for inactive US Bank accounts with low balances in the event the account owner had forgotten the account or was now deceased. The employees goal was to embezzle the money from these accounts in the hopes no one would notice the loss. The employee ( or accomplice ) forged a withdrawal in an amount slightly under the account balance, which he had knowledge of. The remaining balance is now at an amount less than the amount of the maintenance fee for the next monthly accounting cycle. Once the next monthly accounting cycle completes, the new balance ( below the monthly maintenance fee ) is too low and the account is closed. {$87.00} is an unusual amount to withdraw and ATM machines cant do this specific amount. Then leave only {$0.00} left in the account? 
The forged signature is proof the fraud was perpetrated in person at a US Bank branch and not a result from an account that was electronically hacked.

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