Consumer complaint received 2021-06-07
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: U.S. BANCORP (WA)

On XX/XX/2021, we found the company " XXXX XXXX '' on XXXX. This company claims to make armor and props from various movies, and in our case, we were interested in the XXXX armor from XXXX XXXX. The company 's owner - XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. - pushed us off of XXXX and over to their XXXX page where Mr. XXXX-XXXX said we could finish the transaction there. Upon calling Mr. XXXX-XXXX and speaking with him for almost an hour over the phone, we were convinced his company was the one we wanted to use for a birthday gift for our XXXX-year-old son. XXXX had said during the call that he would make our son 's birthday extra special and would ship the armor in under 2 weeks. My husband and I were excited because our son has really struggled this past year - as many people have - and the armor was all he asked for. Mr. XXXX-XXXX then wrapped up the conversation by asking for payment. We asked if we could send it through XXXX, but Mr. XXXX-XXXX was adamant that we paid through XXXX or XXXX. My husband and I WERE NOT AWARE that XXXX was extremely unsafe to use. It is also devastating to find out that the U.S. Bank does business with a company like XXXX that offers zero protection for their customers ' money. Obviously, scammers like Mr. XXXX-XXXX already knew how easy XXXX was to use to defraud people. Our {$330.00} sent to " XXXX XXXX '' on XX/XX/2021, is gone as Mr. XXXX-XXXX has ceased all communication with us. We never received the armor or a refund from Mr. XXXX-XXXX. The worst part is that XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. is sitting in Maryland continuing to scam people. We also discovered that XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. has a long RAP sheet in the state of Maryland. We spoke to the Maryland police department in the city of XXXX, Maryland. The officer there told us they could not help us. He said scammers like Mr. XXXX-XXXX get away with this kind of crime because no entity is out there to prosecute people like him. When we let XXXX know that we had been scammed by Mr. XXXX-XXXX, the representative at XXXX told us we could not get our money back from them, and to ask our bank for the funds. We notified the U.S. Bank of our situation and spoke to a manager of two local U.S. Banks near us. The manager let us know that we could file a fraud case, but that we would likely never see our money again. She spoke very condescendingly and told us that XXXX is not a service to purchase products but to use ONLY with people who you absolutely know. The manager asked me, " Don't you think the man who paid for XXXX XXXX tickets through XXXX wanted his tickets? We didn't pay his fraud claim either. '' We also spoke with a man that works at the executive level of the U.S. Bank in Minnesota. He understood how serious our concerns are, but said that any changes to U.S. Bank would take a long time to implement. Our suggestion was that U.S. Bank 's website has a large warning window pop up BEFORE sending any payment through XXXX. It should say something such as - 'this money you are sending is completely unprotected and will not be reimbursed if this person is attempting to fraud or scam you. ' This needs to happen as soon as possible as scammers know XXXX is a way to fraud trusting people like myself. I was told by Mr. XXXX-XXXX that XXXX was a safe way to pay him. He lied to fraud me, but at what cost? How many other people has this already happened to, and how many more people will be scammed if nothing is done?