Consumer complaint received 2024-01-30
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Early Warning Services, LLC (AR)

On XX/XX/, a friend of mine, someone I've known for 20 years, posted a vehicle for sale on XXXX. It was a late model, XXXX XXXX XXXX, and we don't have a lot of money, so I was excited for the possibility of getting a nice vehicle, that we could actually afford. I normally would have been wary of such a good deal on a nice vehicle, but this person was kind and charitable, and it would not have been unusual for him to sell a vehicle at a reasonable price to help others out. I contacted him via messenger about scheduling a time to come see and test drive the vehicle, to consider it for purchase. They said they were currently unavailable to meet me, but they would take a deposit to hold the vehicle for me to look at the next day. I would never send money to someone for anything I hadn't agreed to purchase, but since I thought I was communicating with a trusted friend, I agreed to send them the money they requested to hold the vehicle, as they had had a lot of interest in the vehicle already, and I was afraid we might miss out on the opportunity to get a vehicle at such a low price, and I felt reassured it was a legitimate opportunity, since I knew and trusted this person. They requested I use Zelle to make the transaction. Since my bank ( and most major banks ) offered Zelle as a product or service used to send money, I assumed it was FDIC insured, and there were consumer protections in place when using this service. I sent {$300.00} to my friend. After I sent the money via Zelle, I got a text immediately afterward, claiming to be from Zelle, saying my transaction was rejected, and my money would be returned/ refunded to my account. ( I now know the scammers, having obtained my phone number from me, had sent the text, fraudulently claiming to be from Zelle, saying the transaction was denied and my money would be returned to my account, so that I would try to send them more money another way, which is exactly what happened. ) I told my friend ( or the person who I thought was my friend at that time ) about the text claiming to be from Zelle, worried it would jeopardize our transaction and our ability to potential get the vehicle. He then requested I send him the money via XXXX. I sent the money through XXXX messenger via XXXX XXXX and he sent me a screenshot saying he was needing to verify with a code to receive the money, and that was unusual for him to receive that message. He then requested I try to send him the money a different way, but I asked him to cancel the XXXX XXXX XXXX first, before trying to send the money, yet again, via another service. He didn't indicate whether he was trying to cancel it or not, but instead was asking me to try to send the money another way. A friend of mine had told me about the car earlier that morning, which started this whole interaction. But she had seen my friend in person during my interaction with them, and it was at this point she contacted me and informed me my friend 's XXXX account had been hacked months earlier ( he failed to inform anyone ), and there was no car for sale. I was being scammed. It was then I told them I would not send anymore money, and would just bring money the next day, when we were supposed to meet, and give it to them if we decided to purchase the car. I did not make the scammers aware I knew I had been scammed, because I did not want them to delete any information from our conversations, so I could have their numbers, emails, and contact information they had given me, to give to the authorities and the bank, as proof I had been scammed. Thankfully, XXXX is buyer protected, and they refunded our money to us. 

XXXX I contacted the bank immediately after learning I had been scammed and recounted all the details and information I had. This agent indicated they filed a claim with Zelle on my behalf. However they did not immediately issue a stop payment for the XXXX transaction, as another agent would indicate they should have. 

XXXX I contacted the bank again, to get more information about what the next steps would be from them, and what else I needed to do. I was directed to the " fraud and dispute '' department. They filed a claim with Zelle, for a " deceptive transaction '' claim and informed me of the timeline of what to expect regarding my claim. 

XXXX I filed a police report about the fraud/scam. I called my bank again to try to give them more information ( the police report number and screenshots of the information and messages between me and the scammers. They said if they needed more information, they would let me know, but didn't take any other information I had offered. 

XXXX After waiting several days, as per the bank 's giving timeline of when I should be able to obtain more information, I contacted them again. They said Zelle had denied my claim, on XX/XX/, saying their consumer contract was only valid if someone else had unauthorized access to my account, and had sent the money. They said since I had sent the money myself, they would not refund my money. The agent I spoke with seemd to scold me, saying Zelle warns you, when using their service, to only send money to trusted family members and friends. ( I thought I was sending the money to a trusted friend. I didn't know I was being scammed at the time I sent the money. ) Zelle also said customers are responsible for who they send funds to, claiming Zelle is not liable for what customers do with their money. The agent even went so far as to say " banks want customers to be stingy with their money ''. So I was being blamed for being the unwitting victim of a scam. The agent said they would refile the claim. I'm not sure if it was this agent, or another who refiled the claim, once again. 

XXXX I contacted my bank again. They said Zelle had denied my claim again, on XX/XX/, stating it was duplicate claim, since it had been refiled. This time, the agent said I should send them all the information I had about the scam, stating she didn't know why the previous agents I had spoken with had not asked for it before. She said she would refile the claim again and gave me an email address to send all the information I had, which I did. Since the bank said the claims process could take up to 45 days, I waited patiently, for a generous amount of time, before contacting them again. 

XXXX XXXX publishes an article titled, " Zelle begins refunding scam victims in major tone shift ''. 

XXXX I contacted the bank again, since I had not heard from them on the status of my claim in the time they said it normally takes. The agent I spoke with said there had been no movement on my claim since it was denied, once again, on XX/XX/. Zelle claimed it was a duplicate claim, yet again, though I did not feel they had taken the information I had sent them into account, since they denied the claim so quickly. The agent said perhaps there had been confusion over the initial denial and the subsequent refiles of the claim. He said he would email someone about my claim and make a note in my file that he did. Requested I wait and call back on XXXX XXXX XXXX 

XXXX I contacted the bank again, as requested. the agent I spoke with this time said the previous agent did not make a note in my file that he had emailed anyone about my claim. I believe she refiled the claim again for me. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  I contacted the bank again. Since I had waited so long before, giving them ample time to work on the claim and thinking they were actually trying to help me, only to realize they were not working on the claim at all, I called again more frequently this time, to check the status of the claim. By this time, I felt I was being given the run around by the bank, since it had been so ling since the scam occurred. Also of note : some of the agents I spoke with were kind and helpful, some were rude and hurtful, but unfortunately, most of the information I was given would be inconsistent and sometimes confusing. There seemed to be no standard of training within the company. Some agents would give very pertinent, helpful information, while some seemed to have no knowledge of what to do. I would speak with someone who would say there is nothing more they can do, then I would speak with someone else who would say, no we can absolutely do something else to help. I called twice this day. The first time was early in the morning. the agent I spoke with, XXXX, was incredibly rude and impatient. He told me some information, then stopped taking. I started to speak to give him some more information, and he treated me like a hostile XXXX, very rude and loudly talking over me. I had not been rude to him, nor had I interrupted him, as he had me. He was blunt and hateful and said there was probably nothing he could do, but reluctantly said he would refile the claim, but said it probably would be denied again and I would not get my money back. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX  ) After being driven to tears while speaking with the rude and hateful agent that morning, and left feeling helpless and hopeless, I decided to call back that afternoon, hoping to find another agent who would be understanding and have compassion on me and my situation, and also be able to give me more information and help me feel like there was still hope to recover the {$300.00} dollars we had lost via Zelle. And I did! XXXX was very kind and helpful, AND gave me information no previous agent had mentioned. I believe he also refiled the claim. Since I didn't use the Zelle app, there did not seem to be any way for me to contact them directly ( and was told as such by several agents ). But he did say I should file a claim via the Zelle website, which no one had told me to do before. 

XXXX I filed a report ( via the " report scam '' section ) on the Zelle XXXX. 

XXXX I called the bank once again, to check on the status of my claim. I was informed my claim had been denied, once again, saying it was a duplicate claim. This was the XXXX time the claim had been denied by Zelle XXXX. The agent said she didn't know what else they could do to help me. 

XXXX I called the bank again that afternoon, hoping, once again, to find an agent who was more helpful and possibly had other ideas to try to help me. This time I spoke with XXXX. She and XXXX were the worst agents I spoke with during this whole process. Her tone wasn't as hateful as XXXX, but she was talking over me and down to me, with a brash attitude and tone. She mentioned something about a " request chargeback '' but I don't know what that was in reference to... such as if that would be the process of it wasn't a Zelle transaction, or something, but I think she said that wasn't an option in my case. After talking to me as if I was ignorant, she said the most notable things : she said it is a matter of culpability ... and if a customer sends money using Zelle, they are culpable for the transaction, no matter what happens with the money. It's like cash... if you drop {$300.00} on XXXX XXXX, it's just gone, and there's nothing the banks can/will do about it. Then came the true gem : " Banks don't have a honeypot to just give people money ''. I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe I was being blamed for being the victim of a scam, and accused of just wanting the bank to give me money for no reason. 

The whole point of having a " deceptive transaction '' type of claim, is for people like me who were the victims of scams. That was the last time I contacted my bank about my claim. I did some research and found articles dating back years about people dealing with the same issue I was, and warning people not to use Zelle, because they would not refund money to scam victims. I had no idea. Zelle and the banks that offer the service have done a good job of keeping this major issue a secret from most of the general public. No one else I talked to had heard about the problems with Zelle either. If I had known, I would have never used Zelle in the first place, in case something like this would have ever happened. Why do all the major banks offer Zelle as a service if doesn't offer consumer protection? I mentioned the article by XXXX about Zelle having to start refunding money to some scamming victims to the agents I spoke with, after it was published on XX/XX/2023, but no one seemed to either know about it or take it into consideration. I feel like my situation qualifies me for a refund from Zelle. XXXX article mentioned a victim who filed a complaint with the cfpb ( consumer financial protection bureau ), and finally received their money back, but unfortunately, most victims who were scammed sending money using Zelle have never received their money back ( so far ). This is my last-ditch effort, the only recourse I know of, that might possibly be able to help me recover the other {$300.00} that was robbed/ scammed from me.