Consumer complaint received 2016-09-28
Company: FIRST CITIZENS BANCSHARES, INC.
State: GA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I am submitting this complaint on behalf our XXXX XXXX XXXX ) XXXX non-profit organization. We have XXXX checking accounts with First Citizens Bank for more than ten years. 

Recently we found XXXX fraudulent checks being cleared through XXXX of our account in the amount of {$270.00} and {$280.00} on XXXX/XXXX/2016 and XXXX/XXXX/2016, respectively. See the attached check images. Other than the account number, none of the name, address, phone number or signature matches our organization 's record. It is a clear and irresponsible mistake for First Citizens Bank to allow such fake checks to clear out of its customers ' account. We requested First Citizens for a full refund and launched a serious investigation on the case but we are denied. The XXXX transactions have been passed the 60 days limit according to its internal policy which we are not aware of. 

We do have reasons why we had not discovered the fraud checks earlier : 1 ) We are a small non-profit organization and we usually make deposits and write checks XXXX or XXXX times a year when we have our XXXX annual events. In fact, we have NEVER written any check from this particular checking account ( XXXX ). We never even ordered check books for this checking account. 

2 ) We do online banking without paper statements. In XXXX 2016 when I tried to login online using the same user name and password, I could not get in. I later walked into the branch office Bank ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA XXXX ) for help and they advised me to call the online support hotline. 

3 ) When I called for help, they could not authenticate me. They said my name is not on the user list and actually I have been the treasurer and managed this account for several years. I asked the XXXX person in our organization who was originally opened the account to call the help hotline. The bank could not authenticate her either. So none of us have access to online banking. Since we do not have any transaction for a few months, we did not get a chance to handle the situation. 

4 ) Last Monday XXXX/XXXX/2016 after all of the frustrations, I wanted to straighten out the issue or close the accounts, so I walked into the above branch office. At that point, bank rep XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX # XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX managed to restore my online access and I found out fraudulent transactions immediately. 

We believe First Citizens Bank should take full responsibility for the following reasons. 

1. It is unbelievable that First Citizens Bank allows a fake check with totally irrelevant ( 1 ) name, ( 2 ) address, ( 3 ) phone #, and ( 4 ) signature clear out of our checking account. If just an account number can get money out of our account, how can we trust the bank? 

2. The rep at First Citizens Bank states that they clear checks by account number only and would never check name, address and signature. They rely on customers to watch and safeguard their bank account transactions. It is a shock to us. In this way even a bank employee can easily make a fraud check. For an organization like us, 60 days limit can easily pass without notice. 

3. We had a lot of troubles to get online access. First Citizens Bank claims that they will restore the paper statement if we do not login online for an extended period of time. Actually we have never received any paper statement. They never initiate any phone call either. Our phone numbers are in their file. 

We are asking regulators to launch an investigation on First Citizens Bank on its practices in dealing with customer information and check clearing procedure. We are asking public to help us too. Our goal is to get refund from First Citizens for our losses.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation