Consumer complaint received 2022-10-11
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: HUNTINGTON NATIONAL BANK, THE (OH)

On XX/XX/2022, around XXXX XXXX, I received a text message stating that it was from Huntington 's fraud department and someone had tried to remove {$1500.00} from my account. The message stated to respond " No '' if I did not approve these charges. I responded with no. Around XXXX, I received another message stating that a fraud representative would be in contact with me shortly. The phone call came through shortly after. The man on the other end stated his name was XXXX and he was with Huntington Bank Fraud Department. He said that the charges have been stopped from coming out of my account and that we only had a short time to get it resolved or the funds would be removed. He walked me through how to enroll with XXXX through Huntington 's mobile banking app. He then put me on hold to contact the XXXX representative ( XXXX XXXX ) to ensure they had the hold on the funds. He came back on the line with instructions from XXXX on how to refund the money to my account. He said they stated that the money would need to be sent to XXXX, should would then hold the funds, and be able to reimburse them on her end. He instructed me on how to create a contact with XXXX, he had me list my name and a reference number ( which was a phone number ). When I asked about the reference number looking a lot like a phone number, he had me verify that it was actually Huntington that he was calling from. The caller ID popped up Huntington Customer Service and the number listed matched the customer service number on the back of my debit card. After that, I felt confident that it was actually Huntington on the other end of the phone. He then instructed me to send the first payment of {$500.00}. Once that had been sent, he instructed me to send the next payment of {$1000.00}. He then said he was going to end the call to contact XXXX to ensure the payments had been received and they could start the investigation. He had told me that the name of the person ( XXXX XXXX in XXXX, GA ) was the one who attempted to remove the funds from my account. He said that he would call back once the investigation was complete. He called back a short time later and said that they would return the call the following morning to return the funds. 
Later that evening, I called Huntington and spoke with a man named XXXX. He had informed me that XXXX was not an employee of Huntington and he then filed the dispute claim for me. 
The next morning, I went down to my local police department and filed a police report. 
XXXX Police Department XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, OH XXXX Phone : XXXX Email : XXXX and spoke to the Chief of Police XXXX XXXX. I sat in the office and wrote my statement. The case number for my police report is XXXX. 
As I was leaving the police station, XXXX called from the number that I received the text message from the previous day. I went back to the station and XXXX XXXX answered my phone. As soon as he said hello, XXXX hung up. 
I called XXXX back when I returned home from taking my child to school. XXXX started instructing me on how to start the reimbursement. She instructed me to go to the request funds spot in XXXX and to click the contact I had created the following day. I did not do as he instructed. He told me to hit send to send the request and I said OK. He then told me he sees that he sees where the request had been sent. I asked him what Huntington location he worked for and he claimed to be from the XXXX, OH location. I then asked how he could have seen the request had been sent when I never sent the request. He immediately hung up on me. He called back and stated we lost connection. I said, " no, you hung up on me when I asked how you received the request when I never sent it. '' He said that he didn't say that but instead said that he had to contact the XXXX representative to make sure it had been received. I said, " No. You said you received the request. '' He then hung up. I tried to call back and he ignored me. I tried multiple times to contact him and was ignored every time. He eventually turned the phone number off.