Consumer complaint received 2017-01-27
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NC
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Making/receiving payments, sending money

Complaint:
I am in process of buying a house. 10 days before closing date which is XX/XX/2017, someone faked email ids of my real estate agent and real estate attorney, and duped me into sending a wire for USD XXXX as the cash down component of my house purchase. The wire was sent on Friday XX/XX/2017. Copy of the entire email communication with the " fake '' email id is attached, so is the copy of the wire I sent. My bank is XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) in XXXX XXXX and the receiving bank is Santander Bank in XXXX, XXXX. I did the wire through a branch of XXXX. The associate who sent the wire, although the address of receiving bank that i had in my wire instructions and the ones showing up on bank 's screen did not match, the associate did not think it was of concern and sent the wire. The FED ID no of the wire is XXXX, and the money was received into the receiving account, as confirmed by the FED ID number. 
May be noted that fake email ids were created by changing 1 character of the email id to disguise it well and make it very difficult for anyone to realize they are face. The genuine mail id of real estate agent is XXXXXXXXXXXX while fake one is XXXXXXXXXXXX ( note the extra " XXXX '' after estate ). Genuine mail id of real estate attorney is XXXXXXXXXXXX while fake one is XXXXXXXXXXXX ( note the change of. position ) On Monday, XX/XX/2017 morning, I got a call from the fraud dept of Santander Bank ( contact number XXXX ), asking me to verify the authenticity of the wire. I then realized that something is wrong. Santander said i should check if this is fraudulent and if yes, contact my bank immediately and take steps to recall the money. I did that immediately. XXXX XXXX XXXX generated a " wire recall '' advise on same day XXXX XXXX, but due to some procedural issues, was actually sent to Santander on XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXX, using MTP XXXX with ref no. XXXX. The recall advise clearly mentioned that this is a fraudulent transaction and funds should be reversed immediately. 
I called XXXX Police dept and filed a fraud case ( case no. XXXX ). Detective XXXX XXXX started work on the case on XX/XX/XXXX. 
I and Detective XXXX have followed up with Santander several times now. The bank says they will not take any action or return my money until they receive from XXXX XXXX XXXX a " letter of indemnity, also called Hold Harmless letter '', which apparently indemnifies them against any liability. XXXX XXXX XXXX refuses to send any such letter, they claim by doing so, they will become liable, which they are not. Despite multiple follow ups with multiple departments of both banks, neither bank is willing to budge from its respective position. 
Santander meanwhile has frozen the account under question, since they already suspected something suspicious. They refuse to divulge any more information, including whether my money is still in that account or not. 

On XXXX, I received a new email from the fraud email account ( fake email of my real estate agent ) saying there 's a problem with them accessing the funds and the funds are being reversed and later sent me a fresh set of wire instructions for another bank account ( details in the email thread ). From this, it seems clear that there is high probability that the funds are there in the frozen account. 
I want to file a complaint against Santander Bank, for not releasing the funds despite a ) Their Fraud dept calling me first to check the authenticity of the wire, and asking me to then take steps to recall the money b ) Freezing the account because they probably know it 's fraud c ) High probability my money is still there since scamster 's email suggests they could not withdraw the funds. Santander also refuses to talk or discuss with me or my bank to try and find a solution.

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