Consumer complaint received 2020-11-04
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: PNC Bank N.A. (NJ)

I was contacted for a sale and was sent enough money to pay for shipping of sale. 

After I cashed the check online with PNC I reached out to them to ensure my check had cleared. 

Below is a copy of my transcript with PNC : Info at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : Thank you for choosing PNC Bank. This chat may be monitored for quality assurance purposes. The next available Online Consultant will be with you. 
Info at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : Hello, this is XXXX. Thank you for choosing to use our online chat service. 
XXXX XXXX at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : Hello Stasha at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : Good Day! Thank you for chatting with PNC! How can I assist you with your banking needs? 
XXXX XXXX at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : Can you check and make sure a check has cleared for me? 
Stasha at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : Hello XXXX. I am happy to take a look into the account activity to see if a check has cleared. How much was the check? 
XXXX XXXX at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : thank you! 
Stasha at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : You are welcome. Yes, the check cleared on XX/XX/20. You can also see this on the account activity as well. The balance before the check was {$4200.00}. With the deposit clearing the account the available balance is now {$6500.00}. 
Stasha at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : If you can not see this online, you may need to refresh your browser by clearing the cache, cookies and browsing history on your device. Using icons, favorites, and bookmarks to log into the PNC site can prevent certain areas of the website not to load, or not appear at all. This is due to frequent updates we make to our website to enhance the customer experience. 
XXXX XXXX at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : okay great thank you! 
Stasha at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : You are welcome. 
Stasha at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : Did you have any other questions today? 
XXXX XXXX at XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX : no that is perfect, thank you for your time After I had been advised that the check had cleared I understood that as the money had moved from the check writers account over to the check cashers account, mine. 

See below for XXXX 's definition of a cleared check : Cleared Funds Explained When cash or checks are deposited into an account, either as an account funding transaction or as the result of the sale of a security, it may take several business days until the financial institution is able to make all of the funds available for withdrawal or trading. A check clears when funds are moved from the check writer 's bank to the bank of the person depositing the check that was written. If the check writer and depositor use the same bank, this can potentially happen on the same day. 


Following PNCs guidance that the check had cleared I was under the impression that I now had another persons money that I needed to forward to pay for shipping. I then sent money, which I was under the impression was cleared from the check, using XXXX to pay. 

A few days later it was found that the check I cashed with PNC was Fraudulent and PNC deducted the funds from my account. 

I have since brought up the issue with PNC multiple times over the last couple of weeks and have now heard back from their escalations team. PNC has now gotten back to me and said they are unwilling to take any responsibility for the fraud. 

My complaint is the fact that my actions were dependent on the information that PNC provided me with, and had I not been told that the check had " cleared '' I would not have sent any money.