Consumer complaint received 2022-03-27
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (WA)

XXXX XXXX dollars was stolen from my Chase Bank checking account on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, by means of XXXX {$1000.00} fraudulent XXXX transfers. The following is my attempt to recount the details of this theft to the best of my ability : On Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXX p.m., I received the following text from XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX : Chase Bank : Did you attempt a {$1000.00} XXXX payment on XX/XX/XXXX? Reply YES or NO.Reply HELP for help, STOP to end msgs.Msg & Data rates may apply. 

After I texted, NO, at XXXX p.m. I received the following reply immediately following, also at XXXX p.m : Chase Bank Alert : Thank you We received your response No further action is required at this time This transaction will be reversed with the help of your phone representative. 

Fridays are my busiest days at work, so I quickly read these texts without noticing the typos. I quickly checked my Chase account, and it did not see any charges to XXXX. However, I have never used XXXX and was not sure how it would show up on my account. 

At XXXX p.m. I received an incoming call from XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX. Because my phone did not list it as a spam or spam likely call, and because I was concerned about the potential fraud, I answered the call. The person on the phone confirmed my first and last name and said he was from the Chase potential fraud department ( I dont remember what name the caller gave me or the exact department he named ). He had issues at first hearing me, so I took my phone off speaker and put it directly to my ear. He asked if I authorized a a {$1000.00} XXXX transfer to a user named XXXX. I said that I did not. Then he said that because XXXX payments are non-refundable, he was going to walk me through transferring the money back to my account through XXXX. I was surprised that we were not going to just cancel my debit and/or credit card like usual when there has been attempted fraud on my account, but because XXXX is apparently a direct payment feature I figured that cancelling my account or cards wouldnt do anything and thought that this must be the only way to get my money back. The person on the phone walked me through accessing XXXX through the Chase app and setting up an account. He kept asking if I was still there like he was impatient, and I said yes that I was just going through the steps he was instructing me to do. He said that XXXX who allegedly impersonated me on XXXX was a part of XXXX XXXX Bank, so he was going to send a confirmation code from there. He said I should receive the confirmation code shortly, which I did. The confirmation code came through the following text from XXXX : XXXX XXXX : Sign on to your XXXX XXXX account and verify your mobile number within XXXX hours. Verification code XXXX. Questions? XXXX. 

I then read the the verification code to the purported Chase representative who was still on the phone. He then proceeded to walk me through linking my phone number to my XXXX account. However, I told him that I encountered an error that my number was already in use. He said that XXXX must have been using my cell number, so he sent me another XXXX XXXX confirmation code. I received the following text from the same number : XXXX XXXX : Sign on to your XXXX XXXX account and verify your mobile number within XXXX hours. Verification code XXXX. Questions? XXXX. 

The purported Chase representative then said I was going to send the money back to myself using the temporary number he created. He had me type my first and last name in the recipient field in the XXXX part of the Chase app and the temporary number he read off to me. I said that this didnt make sense because I was sending money to my name with a different number. He got flustered and said something about sending the money back to myself, again reiterating that it was the only way of getting my money back since XXXX money is nonrefundable. I wrote in the notes field potential fraud. He then said that we were going to do the same process again because the person sent XXXX {$1000.00} payments to XXXX. We walked through the process again, and I again wrote potential fraud. 

The purported Chase representative then said his system had a malfunction and we were going to need to do those XXXX transactions again because they did not go through. I looked at my Chase account payment history, which showed the XXXX XXXX transactions, and told the person on the phone that both transactions seemed to have gone through. He said that he cancelled the transaction but that it could take 10 minutes to register on my account. I paused and said that I was sorry, but asked if he had any way he could prove he was from Chase. He paused and made a couple apologies and asked for me to repeat my question. I explained through tears that I saw my account balance going down and it made me scared and wanted to know if he had a way he could prove he was from Chase. He chortled and said, Umm, and then disconnected. 

I thought at first that we had gotten disconnected because I do not have great cell service in my area. However, when I did not receive a call back, I immediately panicked because of my gut feeling that I had just been scammed. I called the Chase customer service line, and, once I eventually reached a person, was directed to an account XXXX. When I described what happened, the person from Chase said it sounded like I was most likely scammed and that because I authorized the payment there was nothing I could do. I said that the transactions were pending and asked if we could just cancel them before they went through. She said that because it was through XXXX, XXXXChase Bank couldnt do anything. I asked, through tears, if she could cancel my XXXX account. She said that she could not but that I could try calling XXXX to cancel my account and potentially cancel the pending transaction. 

Immediately after that discussion with the Chase Bank account XXXX, I called XXXX, but could not get any person on the phone because I used XXXX through Chase not through the XXXX app and the automated voice told me to contact my bank. But I had just talked to a Chase account XXXX who said the opposite. In frustration, I googled to determine if there was a way to cancel a pending XXXX transaction and found that if you deactivate your XXXX account and the person you transferred the money to isnt a registered XXXX user and hasnt accessed the transfer yet, you could still get your money back. I quickly deactivated my XXXX account because I then recalled that the number to which I fraudulently transferred money ( under my name ) did not have an icon marking it as a registered XXXX account. After cancelling my XXXX account, I checked my Chase account for the rest of the day and the transaction was still pending. It wasnt until the next day that I saw the charges were no longer pending, and that my account had in fact been fraudulently debited with XXXX XXXX withdrawals of {$1000.00} each on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I hope that you will be able to follow-up on this theft of {$2000.00} from my Chase Bank account and help any other victims of similar fraud. Please let me know if you can provide me and all other people who may have been victims of this fraud- with any assistance in recovering these stolen funds. I will, of course, try to provide you with any additional details that may help with your investigation.