Consumer complaint received 2024-04-05
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: BMO Bank, N.A. (IL)

Here is a synopsis of the facts that I am personally aware of surrounding the ACH fraud perpetrated against XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX of which I am an owner. The full name and address of my company for which I am making this complaint is : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX The name and address of the bank against which I am filing this complaint is : BMO BANK, Business Banking XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX  XXXX On Tuesday, XX/XX/XXXX my employee, XXXX XXXX received an email from someone she believed to be XXXX XXXX, her regular contact at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX located in XXXX XXXX XXXX ( a vendor for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ). I can provide a PDF print out of the conversations back and forth between XXXX XXXX ( using the XXXX  XXXX email ) and the person she believed to be XXXX XXXX. The basics of the conversation are that this person first established herself as the usual XXXX contact by asking for payment status on specific invoices, and gave correct invoice numbers. After responding with payment status, she informed XXXX XXXX that due to their recent corporate restructure. they were changing their banking routing and account numbers. The fact that XXXX had just completed a restructure led further credibility to the authenticity of the individual as well as the change in banking information.After receiving emails and what looked to be in every way an XXXX Banking Information for Wires & ACHs document, XXXX began making payments to the account provided to on XX/XX/XXXX. All payments were accompanied by an email to XXXX ( this is the valid XXXX email address that all payment information is sent to, ) containing a Payment Advice Statement ( this document states the payment amount, date it would deposit to the XXXX bank account as well as the invoices included in the payment ). 

On Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX received a telephone call from XXXX XXXX, the Akers CFO. He informed her that XXXX had not received payments from us for quite some time. As the conversation progressed, it became apparent that we had been sending payments to a fraudulent bank account, and that the email conversation on XX/XX/XXXX was initiated by someone fraudulently posing as an XXXX employee I immediately contacted our BMO Bank representatives via email and phone. XXXX XXXX and I called the BMO Fraud number together. We then went to the local BMO branch together and met with XXXX XXXX, the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX at that location. She froze our account and opened a new account. She also initiated a claim for reimbursement of Fraud Loss on our behalf. We were advised at that time by XXXX XXXX not to file a police report or FBI report. She advised that the BMO Fraud Department would handle filing those reports. Here is a summary of the Fraudulent Transactions : ACH Entry Date ACH Value Date ACH Amount XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX TOTAL FRAUD ACH TRANS XXXX Because we were in the bank meeting with a BMO representative on XX/XX/XXXX, we advised the representative, XXXX XXXX, that there were two fraudulent transactions with Value Dates ( date payment is to deposit to the payee account ) in the future ( XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX ), and asked to her to immediately pull these funds back, and not allow the transactions to be deposited to the fraudulent bank account ( fraudulent payee ). This action was never taken by this representative or anyone at BMO Harris Bank. This resulted in a total of {$57000.00} in fraudulent transactions being paid out agains our express instructions. 

We later found out from XXXX XXXX ' superior at BMO that the information XXXX gave us about filing an FBI Report and Police report was incorrect and that we should file a police report, which we did immediately. The Police Report # XXXX was filed on XX/XX/XXXX with the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX # XXXX. After our case was assigned to a Detective at the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, he advised us to file an FBI report as well. We completed an on-line FBI report on XX/XX/XXXX as well I followed up via telephone multiple times with our personal XXXX  XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX to learn the status of our claim for refund of the fraud loss. I was informed that the transactions with value dates on our prior to XX/XX/XXXX had been denied. The two remaining transactions with value dates of XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX were still under review. 

I have been told that these two remaining transactions have been denied at 3 levels of review, and that they would continue to " run these transactions up the flag pole '' to higher levels of review. I have not been informed at this time of the total process or number of levels of review for my claim.