Consumer complaint received 2022-12-01
Company: HUNTINGTON NATIONAL BANK, THE
State: OH
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
I have been the victim of a XXXX scam, I guess it's called the me to me scam. 
On Friday XX/XX/2022 I called what I thought was the XXXX customer support number that was on their own app ( I will include a screenshot of the number on the XXXX app ) and got a man who told me his name was XXXX. I told him I was wondering if he could stop or reverse a payment that my husband sent for {$420.00} and he said he could help me with that. So he said I had to verify my account and transfer {$420.00} through XXXX to verify my account, so I am say ok. He told me not to worry as this was just a dummy transaction to verify my account and I was just sending the money to myself. Mind you, I had never used XXXX before so this was new to me. I trusted him because I called the number that was on the XXXX app itself, so why wouldn't I have a reason to trust this man? So then he has me transfer {$360.00} through XXXX, again to verify my account. Then he says Oh my, someone named XXXX XXXX from XXXX, Ohio has my debit card number and has used it to open a XXXX account and now there was {$990.00} and another {$2400.00} pending that will be taken from my checking account if he doesn't stop it. He would put me on hold periodically and say he was doing paperwork or on the other line with my bank and working with them to stop transactions. He said he got the {$990.00} stopped but I needed to transfer {$2400.00} into XXXX  to meet my daily limit so that XXXX XXXX can't steal my money. So he had me download XXXX but those attempts to transfer that money failed for my bank would deny them.Thank goodness for that. So I talked to him on Saturday XX/XX/2022 in the morning and he had me transfer {$500.00} three times for a total of {$1500.00} through XXXX to meet my daily limit on spending once again so XXXX XXXX can't steal my money. Again he assured me it was all dummy transactions and my money wasn't going anywhere but being transferred back to myself. On Sunday XXXX XXXXXX/XX/2022 he had me do the same thing again transfer {$500.00} XXXX times ( {$1500.00} ) to reach my daily limit, as to do last step verification needed to get just the {$420.00} refunded because at this point he told me that XXXX XXXX had been arrested the night before for stealing my debit card number. Once again he kept telling me he was working with my bank on resolving this issue, he would still periodically put me on hold to do this. So in the span of 3 days I had unknowingly lost {$3700.00} to this man who said his name was XXXX XXXX XXXX. He even sent me several text messages with a case number and ID number that looked offical to me ( I will include those screen shots ). I called my bank on Sunday evening XX/XX/2022 and told them all about this and they started a dispute because they said I had been scammed. I was crying, I thought I was smart enough to not let this happen to me! But once again I called the number that was on the XXXX app itself, so how was I supposed to know that number had been changed or highjacked by a sophisticated scammer? Well I just got a letter from my bank ( I will include a photo ) yesterday that they will not refund my money that I was scammed out of basically because I authorized those transactions and they did as I instructed. I did not know I was being scammed at the time of the transactions, I thought he was helping me. He kept saying these are dummy transactions and my money wasn't actually going anywhere. As you would expect that number I called XXXX is no longer in service. I called my bank, I reported it, I thought they would help me but they just add insult to injury. Oh and he had the last 4 digits of my account numbers and my daughters, so we all had to open new checking and savings accounts and get new debit cards.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation