Consumer complaint received 2023-05-02
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — International money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: KEYCORP (WA)

On XXXX, 2022 I received an email from XXXX that said I was going to be charged XXXX $ I thought it was a scam. So I went to the XXXX app on my phone and saw the notice that said if I don't respond within 24 hrs I would be charged anyway. There was an XXXX number to cancel the transaction. I called the number and the person on the other end said yes that the transaction had already happened and he would help me get my money back. He told me to upload an app on my computer and that would help him walk me through the return process. I did and then he had me log into my bank account online. I did and then the computer screen showed that the transaction had charged my account XXXX XXXX So he had me fill out a return form for the dollar amount. But, he made my decimal point not work. And so he made it look like he transferred XXXX into my account. Then said oh XXXX, there has been an accident. You received that money and that XXXX was going to get their money back. I said I would gladly pay them back. He said that now that you have received this money that you will have to pay taxes on it. I said that is not fair, that is your mistake. He said it was your computer that didn't put the decimal point in. Then he had me type the numbers XXXX... it showed my decimal point not working until the 3rd time I hit it. So he said you can pay this amount back without paying taxes if you wire XXXX the money directly. I said how do I do that. He said go your bank and tell them you want to transfer that amount to XXXX. And he gave me the address of the bank information in XXXX XXXX. He said stay on the phone with him if I have any questions. I drove to the bank and he said now they might not want to transfer that money and you don't want to pay the taxes so tell them you want to repay a loan. And tell them you know the person that is receiving the money. All the while the guy was on the phone listening. He told me to keep him on the phone in case I had any questions. I did everything he told me because I didn't want to pay taxes on that money that looked like had been added to my checking account. I told the bank teller I wanted to wire money and she told me to wait in the waiting area. I did for 5 minutes and then the bank manager called me over and asked me what I wanted to do. I said I want to wire money to a guy in XXXX XXXX to repay a loan. She started filling out the form online she asked me if i knew the person receiving the money and i said i did and then asked me which of my accounts I wanted to send the money from. I said the checking account. She said oh you have the money in your savings account and I said no, it's going to come out of my checking account. She said oh there it is and then she had me sign the paper and then she gave me 3 pages of stuff and said have a good day. I walked out of there and got in my car and then looked at my phone and asked the guy if that was it and he said the bank executive would call me later to ask me if I was transferring that money and that the guy would stay on the line to make sure if I had any questions. I went about my business at home and then after an hour I said I'm getting busy I'm going to hang up this phone. He said he would call me tomorrow to make sure I was happy with the transaction, but for me to not to look into my checking account because it would tip off the bank that there was something wrong and they would stop the transfer. I said no problem good bye. I was awakened the next morning by the same person from XXXX at XXXX in the morning. I told him it was too early and not to call me that early. I hung up the phone and then I got suspicious. I went online and looked at my accounts and saw that the XXXX person had transferred that amount of money from my savings into my checking account while I was at the bank. I called the bank fraud division and they put a hold on the money. They told me it would take 10 days to get my money back. I went to the bank later that day and told them what happened. The bank XXXX told me I would never get my money back, and she said that's why I asked you all those questions. I said what questions? I said all you asked me was if I knew the person receiving the money. She said that you were so intent on sending that money that no amount of questions would have changed my mind. I said I've never transferred money before and if you could have asked me just a little bit more questions that maybe I could figure out that it was a scam. She said no, that we don't pry into your business. I said for XXXX $ you should pry. It's not like it's XXXX XXXX So I feel the bank didn't try to protect me at all and didn't even mention what I was signing and that if she would have said read through these 3 pages, that there were 3 or 4 examples of a scam and what to look out for. If she would have pointed that out to me at all that I would have easily figured it out and all this could have stopped right then and there. But she must have been in a routine and not bothered with that.