Consumer complaint received 2024-02-24
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Block, Inc. (IN)

On XX/XX/24 at about XXXX XXXX  I was trying to send my remaining balance in my XXXX  banking account to my sons email address via the XXXX  app through pay anyone and I got a notification that said that my transaction could not go through because it was over hitting my $ XXXX limit per the month for pay anyone transfers. I knew that that wasnt possible seeing as how I have been unemployed for over a month with no funds being deposited into that account for me to send out to anyone. I wanted to see why it was giving me that error and if there was something that XXXX could do to help me increase the limit so that I was able to send my money over to withdrawal. I was in the middle of cleaning and also helping my son with his homework so I googled XXXX customer service number and it gave me a number to call. I called the number and it told me to press XXXX XXXX to speak with a live agent. I pressed XXXX XXXX and it transferred me to someone who answered as if they were an agent at XXXX bank. The male asked me to confirm my name and my account balance with him. During this time I was having trouble hearing him so I repeatedly asked him if he could speak a little louder and said I was having trouble hearing. He tells me that he is going to call back in to see if it helps his connection so that I can hear better. He calls me back while Im still on the phone with him from a different number, again I was also doing other things at the same time so I didnt think anything about looking at the number while it was clicking in. He again has me confirm my name and my account balance. He then starts walking me through going to my account settings and things to view my limits and goes over them with me to confirm pretending that he could view my account as well and was just confirming things with me. This agent keeps guiding me around my XXXX app and then tells me that I need to send a test transfer. I asked him what that is and he stated that I would try to send the amount again that failed to my son but to a XXXX  testing account and that the transaction will be completely blocked it is just apart of the process. Mind you I have never called XXXX  before over the phone and I have only used the app chat to communicate with them twice before. At this point, I start screen recording so I could remember anything if need be. He proceeds talking to me and tells me to try to send {$1900.00} and gives me a name tag which was XXXX XXXX. I questioned it when he gave me the random name and he replied with what it is and was convincing. The transaction declines the same as it did with my son and he asks me what it told me and I tell him the same error and he responded, Great thats what it should have done. So it declining obviously made me think that ok, I can trust him he was right nothing sent and it was blocked like he told me it would be. He then proceeds to ask me if I have Cashapp. I told him that I do. He says, so maam what we will have to do is link your XXXX  to your Cashapp and I will continue to help guide you step by step from there. This is going to take a minute but rest assured it is apart of the process so that I am able to increase your limit for you. So he talks me into pulling up my Cashapp and he asks if my XXXX  card is linked to my Cashapp. I tell him no. He asks me to link it. I link it. He tells me to hit add cash and transfer {$2100.00} over. I tried and it declined. He then told me to try to transfer over {$1900.00}. I transfer it over and he says ok, now so that you can get your full balance that you need and I can get this increased for you to do so please go back to add cash and put {$100.00}. I did and it also successfully transfered over. He then asks me to unlink my actual XXXX  card and says that he is going to have me put in my virtual XXXX  card number so that it will transfer back out into my XXXX  account. So he gives me this card number information and I link the card. He then walks me through cashing it out and it told me Id be charged a {$36.00} and some change fee to cash out. I questioned at that point and asked why would I pay to transfer out my own money? He responded with, please maam rest assured we will be reimbursing you of any and all fees charged during this process and it will be adjusted and will reflect in your XXXX account when transferred out. I then cash out the transaction. He then asks me to unlink the card. I unlinked the card and he asks me to send a screenshot showing the transaction was pulled through as well as the card was unlinked to a number. I sent it and he waits a minute or so and tells me that he didnt get it and asks me to then send it to another number. I send it to that number and he tells me he received the proof and tells me that I can link my original XXXX  card back on my cashapp if Id like. I said so what do I do now? He says please pull up your XXXX account once again and let me know what your balance is showing. I pulled it up and I said, I only have {$51.00} in my XXXX  account now so where is all of my money? He says, Ok now give me just a minute maam while I update your XXXX account balance. And cold disconnects the call. In that moment I absolutely knew I was just scammed out of my money and I immediately ran to Cashapp and opened the transaction to see the details and noticed that it was cashed out to a XXXX XXXX  debit card and not cashed out to any XXXX  virtual card. I have opened a dispute with Cashapp and they denied my claim and closed my dispute in less than 24 hours even when they told me that itd take up to 10 business days. I do not believe they investigated my dispute properly, if they even investigated it at all. I replied to them by email and requested that they provide me the supported document to back up their decision and what they sent me is totally inaccurate information. The document they sent with this email shows the transaction and all of the information from it and the document states, An investigation of your claim submission and account details concluded that no error occurred because the merchant voided your payment and no funds were removed from your account. Which is totally false. Nothing was voided and I do not have my funds. They responded with theyll no longer respond or look into my dispute and I can only reach out to discuss with them any new issues that XXXX come about. At the start of this I had {$2100.00} and some odd change, maybe XXXX or so to be exact if I recall the change correctly. I was scammed and talked through fraudulently giving up {$2000.00} to a scammer that I do not know who pretended to be my bank, XXXX bank, unintentionally. Now mind you I even provided cashapp with all of my proof. Again all of this was screen recorded as well as some screenshotted. The numbers, call logs, and screenshots of proof I sent to Cashapp for my dispute. It was all recorded via screen record so it doesnt have volume but I do have their card information that they had me link to my cashapp as well as all numbers they communicated with me on during and after on the phone and via texts. They are scamming like they are XXXX bank and this is not ok. I called back later on after this and they basically admitted to taking my money, was laughing about it, and calling me names. No remorse whatsoever. I know that I am not the first and I will not be the last that they scam this way if something isnt done about this. I will add that after the fact of all of this, XX/XX/24 I had my sister call them to get them on video record with volume so that I could prove how they are scamming and I did record it just in case it could help me in my case with XXXX  but unfortunately I spoke with XXXX  to try to file a dispute since the charges cleared and are no longer pending and XXXX  has denied me the chance to even dispute these transactions because they had me withdrawal it myself, even knowing and having proof that they are a scam and it was actually a fraudulent situation. They said those exact words to me and their calls are recorded by them as well. They took all of my proof of everything and had me email it all to them for a scam report so that their protection team can try to stop them from pretending to be them in the future but this doesnt in any way help me get my money back. They suggested that I file a police report and XXXX a government place that XXXX be able to help me with fraud. Absurd and sad. I did get them telling my sister they were XXXX  and alot of the same things as well. Please I beg someone to help me in some way to get my money back. I have XXXX kids and I am unemployed and I just got my tax money yesterday before this happened. I took care of important things and caught things up that were behind and this {$2100.00} was ALL that I had left and was being used towards a car because we currently do not have our own transportation. They left me with {$51.00} to my name and both Cashapp and XXXX are denying me of any help from this with this. I have multiple videos of proof if there is an email that I can send them to because it is saying that theyre too big to upload on here in documents? Please and thank you