Consumer complaint received 2024-07-26
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: CHARLES SCHWAB CORPORATION, THE (GA)

The morning of XX/XX/year> I awoke to a notification email that an illicit actor had illegally accessed and unauthorizedly used my XXXX account to make purchases and withdrawals to an unidentified address. My immediate response was to contact XXXX first and was met with a representative that aided me with locking my account and then I was told that I would need to contact my financial institution to have any hope of recovering the funds. I was explicitly told that XXXX can not help with this matter and that because the funds were taken from my linked bank account, I would have to contact my financial institution for further actions. I then immediately called Charles Schwab, I was told that the illegal transactions are still pending and nothing could be done until the illegal transactions were posted. The representative did help me in reporting my accounts cards as stolen. I obliged and was informed that I should contact the merchant and the police. I informed Schwab that I had already spoke to the merchant, to which the merchant locked my account and told me to contact my financial institution, and that I will be calling the police to file a police report shortly. I then filed an Identity Theft police report case number : XXXX with the help of XXXX XXXX at the XXXX. I then called back to Schwab on XX/XX/year> and informed the representative of all the details again and was assured that Schwab would do everything they can to help retrieve the stolen funds. Since I had provided everything Schwab had demanded and I was assured that Schwab 's Security Guarantee would protect me from all unauthorized and illegal transactions, I believed I was going to be safe from the thieves that had tried to access my accounts. However, that doesn't seem to be the case as I received an update on XX/XX/year> for Dispute Case # XXXX, that states that they are now unable to approve my claim because of " Documents from Merchant ''. I believe this to be incredibly disingenuous, as not only have I followed the complete protocol that I was informed of by Schwabs and XXXX  representatives, but Schwab is also not following the federal law of the Fair Credit Billing Act, that states that consumers have no liability for unauthorized charges. The unauthorized charges were reported within 1 day, which according to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, ( 15 U.S. Code 1693g ) is sufficient time for notifying my financial institution of the illegal transactions taking place. Schwab is also illegally not abiding by the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, ( 15 U.S. Code 1693g section b ) stating that " In any action which involves a consumers liability for an unauthorized electronic fund transfer, the burden of proof is upon the financial institution to show that the electronic fund transfer was authorized or, if the electronic fund transfer was unauthorized, then the burden of proof is upon the financial institution to establish that the conditions of liability set forth in subsection ( a ) have been met, and, if the transfer was initiated after the effective date of section 1693c of this title, that the disclosures required to be made to the consumer under section 1693c ( a ) ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) of this title were in fact made in accordance with such section. '' Schwab is accusing me of being the illegal unauthorized accessor and without any burden of proof as stated in the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, ( 15 U.S. Code 1693g section b ). This is extremely illegal and unamerican. My consumer rights are being violated and Schwab is not upholding their duty as a financial institution even after I have abided by all of their protocols and the United States of America Federal Laws.