Consumer complaint received 2022-03-05
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MI
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021 my husband and I both received calls from a Fifth Third number - XXXX. I received calls ( XXXX ) at XXXX p.m., XXXX, XXXX and XXXX. My husband received calls ( XXXX ) from Fifth Third at XXXX, XXXX and twice at XXXX. The first fraudulent transfer took place at XXXX p.m. ( see the attached phone records ) At XXXX p.m. I received an email notification XXXX New Payment Alert from Fifth Third ( see attached email ) that {$840.00} was sent to XXXX XXXX. At XXXX p.m. I placed a phone call to the customer service number in the email to let them know that we did not authorize this transaction. ( see phone records ) QUESTION : If we authorized the transaction, why would be still be receiving phone calls AFTER the funds were transferred? 
On XX/XX/2021 at XXXX p.m. my husband called the fraud department at XXXX for XXXX minutes to dispute the prior days transactions. 
On XX/XX/2021 at XXXX p.m. I received a call from Fifth Third number XXXX and pressed the number immediately to respond that the transaction blocked was not me. At XXXX p.m. {$1000.00} was taken from our account and sent to XXXX XXXX. At XXXX p.m. I received a XXXX New Payment Alert. At XXXX p.m. I called the number on the email to again report the fraudulent transfer. ( see attached email ) Knowing that we had money taken from our account the day before, we were very careful to deny any transactions. 
On XX/XX/2021 I received a denial of our fraud claim for the first withdrawal of {$840.00} with no explanation but saying that the transaction is valid. Case XXXX. I called and discussed the situation further, but received another denial on XX/XX/XXXX simply saying the transaction is valid but no idea how that was determined. 
On XX/XX/2021 at XXXX p.m. I received a call from Fifth Third number XXXX and pressed the number immediately to respond that the transaction blocked was not me. At XXXX {$1000.00} was withdrawn from our account and sent to XXXX XXXX. At XXXX I received a XXXX New Payment Alert. 
On XX/XX/2021 at XXXX a.m. I received a call from Fifth Third number XXXX and pressed the number immediately to respond that the transaction blocked was not me. At XXXX a.m. {$1000.00} was withdrawn from our account and sent to XXXX XXXX. At XXXX a.m. I received a XXXX New Payment Alert.

We have received 2 denials of the 3 - {$1000.00} transactions on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, even after discussing the attempted hacking of our account. 
We have been able to determine that the are NUMEROUS IP addresses attempting to login to our bank account and those occurred at the times of the transactions. The only IP addresses that relate to us are XXXX ( my home computer ) and XXXX ( my mobile ). My husband does no banking. The fraudulent IP addresses hacking our account are XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I believe you can see that others logged into our account at the times of the transactions and that the authorizations did not come from us. We were able to see this with our local banker. 
We also understand that on XX/XX/2021 it is alleged that we received a text message to confirm adding XXXX. WE HAVE NEVER AUTHORIZED OR SIGNED UP FOR XXXX AND KNEW NOTHING ABOUT XXXX UNTIL THE FRAUDULENT TRANSACTIONS OCCURRED. At the advice of our banker, we immediately removed our phone and email information from the XXXX profile so no further transactions could occur. We believe someone else gained access to our account and signed us up. IS THERE ACCESS TO OUR ACCOUNT FROM ANOTHER IP ADDRESS AT THE TIME WE SUPPOSEDLY SIGNED UP FOR XXXX? 
On XX/XX/2021 at XXXX and XXXX p.m. I received email notices from Fifth Third that my contact information had been changed. When I logged into my messages online it said that I had changed my email address to XXXX, which is not an email address that I am associated with. A minute later that email address was deleted. Did another XXXX address log into our account when this contact information was changed? 
On XX/XX/2021 at XXXX p.m. I received an email that my user ID had been locked. I was not online trying to log into my account at this time. I called the customer service number in the email to let them know this wasnt me who changed the contact information and the customer service rep had no record of such a change ever occurring. This was very confusing since it was Fifth Third who told me it had occurred. 
In early XXXX, at the suggestion of my banker, I took my laptop to a computer specialist and spent {$150.00} to make sure there wasnt key logger software on my machine or any viruses. Nothing was found. 
My banker, XXXX XXXX, shared that the disputes department is requesting that we provide text message proof that we didnt receive or authorize the above XXXX transactions. Because this request was made by Fifth Third more than 90 days after the transactions occurred, XXXX says they no longer have this information. As noted in prior emails, we dont believe we received text messages and was able to show our banker this by scrolling through text messages from those dates on my phone and seeing that none existed from Fifth Third. 
On XX/XX/2021 two transactions totaling {$1000.00} were withdrawn from our account originating in Florida. At this point, we had to close the account that weve had with Fifth Third for decades and open a new account. These funds were returned to our account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation