Consumer complaint received 2022-09-02
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: BMO Bank, N.A. (AZ)

Starting in XXXX, I started working for an individual doing car work. My duties included purchasing parts and other items and travelling to different places to fix cars. They were paying me with checks that look just like paychecks I have gotten from any other employer. Much of the funds were paid as reimbursement for items that I had purchased. I deposited the first check into XXXX XXXX and withdrew the funds. The second check I deposited and XXXX froze my account so they could conduct an investigation into the validity of the checks. The account was frozen for 30 days, after which, they released the funds from the check and unfroze the account. I continued to do work for this individual and deposit my checks into XXXX as I was confident in their validity since XXXX had conducted their investigation. When I deposited a check and the funds were available, I withdrew them as this was the second time XXXX froze my account ; the first time was due to an insurance check that was valid and put me in a position of financial hardship, so I did not trust them to hold the funds in their account but they were the only method I had to deposit checks. In addition to this, I usually needed the funds to purchase more parts to complete my future jobs. I did receive the first few checks back as returned, XXXX sent me a letter saying the reason was " Invalid MICR line ''. I was not sure what this meant so I went to the local branch and asked. They told me it had to do with the numbers on the bottom of the check not being in the correct place as they have to be a very specific distance from the edge and bottom of the check. At that time I called the individual I was working for and told them what was happening. They called me back at a later time and told me that the issue had been fixed and all checks going forward would have the correction on them and they would re-issue those payments. In late XXXX, suddenly the checks all started being returned and the funds removed from my account. This caused the balance to go severely negative and caused several deposits of mine to essentially be taken by XXXX. When I contacted the individual I was working for, he hung up on me and not too long later his phone number stopped working. It appears that I was defrauded of time and money. I spoke to XXXX  a fraud analyst with XXXX, and he treated me like I was an XXXX for not realizing that there was an issue earlier. I don't know why, as I am not in banking and I do not have much knowledge of all of that stuff. I asked him what the investigation that froze my account was for again, and he said it was to look into the validity of the checks, and he made sure to tell me that they did their due diligence and I was responsible. I spoke to an attorney to get advice after which I contacted the bank the checks were written on and they advised me that they are an online bank that DOES NOT allow account holders to write checks whatsoever. If XXXX was looking into the validity of the checks, they clearly did not make any attempt to contact XXXX BANK ( paying bank ) to see if the checks were valid, as they would of been told the same thing. Additionally, when I first started making these deposits I did so in person and not a single teller said anything. It has come to my attention recently that these employees have a good knowledge of the banking system and should of been able to tell that the bank was an online bank. This also goes for the fraud team that " investigated '' the checks. I can not recall the regulation, but there is a regulation that states that banks must take reasonable measures to protect themselves AND account holders from scams/fraud. XXXX claimed to have conducted an investigation that took 30 days to verify the validity of the checks, if they would of actually done their due diligence, this would not have continued and resulted in such severe losses. Additionally, I made several attempts to get XXXX to remove my information from XXXX, as they have my phone number and email attached to XXXX through their system and it has caused a {$990.00} payment to automatically be deposited. I have also sent a certified letter and spoke to the fraud analyst requesting this. They have no complied and my information is still attached.