Consumer complaint received 2024-09-30
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Getting the loan — 
Company: NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION (CT)

On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX, I received a call from a scammer spoofing Navy Federal 's phone number, identifying himself as an employee of NFCU and alerting me to suspicious activity in my accounts. Having dealt only 16 days earlier on XX/XX/XXXX with unauthorized transactions using my debit card for which NFCU had closed my debit card, I assumed this to be a continuation of the prior incident 's breach and wasn't suspicious that I was being duped, as I probably would have been otherwise. I was informed by this person that someone had taken out a XXXX XXXX  in my name and transferred it to one of my accounts. I saw a transfer from savings to checking in the amount of {$4800.00} but there was no evidence of a deposit or where it could have come from. I had no messages or alerts from Navy Federal, no new accounts in my list of accounts, no messages or alerts in my XXXX account ... no clues as to the origin or how it had happened. I was informed by this supposed employee that if I didn't want to be responsible for this XXXX XXXX, I needed to return the funds to where they had come from. I was placed on hold multiple times while this individual was supposedly conferring with XXXX representatives. I was sent a payment request through XXXX but when I attempted to make the payment, it wouldn't go through. The scammer claimed that NFCU 's push notification system seemed to be down because he was sending a message to me to authorize the transfer on the bank 's end but I didn't receive it. When XXXX wouldn't go through ( even after multiple attempts of lower dollar amounts ), the scammer switched strategies and talked me through opening an XXXX XXXX account. I do use XXXX but I had never even heard of XXXX XXXX. Bear in mind that a total of more than XXXX hours that evening was spent on the phone with this person while I was multitasking cooking for and caring for my children, so my mind was not very sharp. I just wanted it to be over so I could get off the phone and get my children to bed. He instructed me to make XXXX transfers from my NFCU checking account to XXXX XXXX : {$2500.00}, {$2000.00}, and {$370.00}. From there, he ended up sending me a debit card number to transfer the money to, with some odd explanation of how this would get the money returned to XXXX. At XXXX, I transferred the total to this card ( {$4800.00} + {$15.00} transfer fee for a total of {$4800.00} ) and then he instructed me to delete the card number that had been provided, and I did so. Thinking I was finally over the nightmare, the call was concluded at XXXX XXXX. I didn't realize the nightmare was only just beginning. When I logged into my online banking on XX/XX/XXXX to discover a personal loan listed in my accounts that wasn't there before. I immediately called NFCU to ask for an explanation of why this hadn't been properly reversed and removed, only to be told they had no record of me speaking with XXXX of their representatives on XX/XX/XXXX. They proceeded to close my checking and savings accounts without my request, as well as my debit card. They issued me new account numbers and balances were transferred to these new accounts. I asked what I should do and was told to file a fraud claim through secure messaging. I did so right away, though it was initially rejected because I only reported the loan itself, not a transaction as fraudulent. I resubmitted the claim with additional information and it was rejected in a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX mailed to my home saying, " Based on the facts of our investigation, we have determined that no error has occurred and your claim has been denied. Additionally, we have reviewed your transaction history and, based on the facts surrounding the use of your account, we have found that you benefited from the transaction ( XXXX ). ... As a consumer, you have the right to request any documentation that was used in this decision of this claim. '' Quite distraught at this result, I visited my local NFCU branch and asked an employee there to assist me in my request for a second review of my fraud claim. Though she couldn't assist much, she did give me the needed form and walked through it with me. I provided a list of incoming calls from my XXXX showing to have come from the national NFCU phone number in support of my claim that I had not applied for the loan and that social manipulation/scamming/spoofing was used to move the loan payout funds into the scammer 's hands. As part of my explanation for the second review, I specifically requested the documentation that had been used in their first determination. Again, my claim was denied in a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX but not received in the mail until XXXX ( on or about XX/XX/XXXX ). This second mailing from NFCU didn't include or mention the supporting documentation I had requested. After studying the e-promissory note for the fraudulent loan, there was a timeline included of the loan application on XX/XX/XXXX as having taken place from the XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. I looked up this location and the report I got back said the address is located in XXXX, South Carolina. I have never been to South Carolina, let alone on XX/XX/XXXX, and can prove my location as being in Connecticut that day. Additionally, the report included a fraud score, rating that IP Address a XXXX as a high risk of fraud. I found that there also happens to be a branch of NFCU in XXXX, which seems more than a coincidence. In summary, I was scammed by a person who got access to my online banking, stole my identity in applying for a loan, and manipulated me in transferring the money to him. I am most upset with Navy Federal. I received no notice of a loan being issued, the sum wasn't even deposited into my account officially until XX/XX/XXXX when the scammer had already done the damage. Had NFCU checked the IP address that applied for the loan, they would have easily seen that I couldn't have been the XXXX applying for it, and there was no reason for me to do so, since I already had a credit card with them. They have not furnished the supporting documentation, so I suspect a cover-up and that the scammer XXXX have had ties to NFCU himself as he was somehow able to apply for the loan, hide its existence from me, and get the funds accessible to him one day before it was supposedly issued. I have been a Navy Federal customer for more than XXXX  years with never any problems, so the fact that they are treating me so poorly disgusts me. I believe that they are derelict in their duties to investigate my claim thoroughly and they bear the burden of proof that I did apply for this loan and that it wasn't done fraudulently without my knowledge, in a way very similar to the class action complaint XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  from XX/XX/XXXX.