Consumer complaint received 2024-03-16
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Block, Inc. (CA)

XX/XX/2024 I was searching for a hotel because I was visiting with my daughter who is gravely XXXX and in a facility in XXXX XXXX, CA which is XXXX miles from me. I phoned an ad in Recycler and got a call back from XXXX XXXX XXXX He said he could book XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX on a special rate, needed {$25.00} booking fee which I sent via cash app and he supposedly booked ( attached copy of confirmation no. XXXX ). 
He said he needed {$1600.00} to check in and as I was expecting to pay for a room it made sense but I only had {$300.00} on cash app so sent that because he said I could pay the rest after check in. XXXX XXXX was the Cashapp tag. When I got to the hotel they told me the credit card used didnt go through and had to do an authorization so I called him and he told me it wasnt a problem and spoke to a person at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and she came to the front and did an authorization?? and it seemed fine. I checked in. Once in the room he called to tell me I needed to pay another {$1300.00} or I would have to check out so I paid it in XXXX payments sent to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX was the name that came up and he said she was his associate {$750.00} and {$550.00}. 
Next morning I picked up my daughter from the hospital and upon returning to the hotel I started getting phone calls from XXXX saying I had to pay another {$1500.00} or the booking would be cancelled. He was getting angry and phoned on the room phone also which was very disturbing especially as I had my daughter with me. He started saying his boss was demanding more money and now was getting scary. The manager of the hotel, or at least she said she was knocked on the door and said if the bill wasnt paid by noon we would have to leave. I was shocked and tried to explain to her what was going on and show her I had paid but she said she didnt want to get involved. 
Im disgusted that a hotel like XXXX XXXX would be so rude with no concern or compassion for its guests especially when as far as I was concerned had paid {$1600.00} for XXXX night so far!! 
I immediately got on phone to my bank, both XXXX because some of the money was transferred from there and Cashapp who told me if the payments were still pending they could be stopped and they were still pending, but then they changed that and said they couldnt do anything until the charges were complete. Either way it was all reported in detail more than once with more than XXXX customer service agent. On the Cashapp site it states that my money is fdic insured yet all claims came back stating they were unable to recover my funds but my report would help with future scams which is totally unacceptable because that money could have been stopped especially when they had the information where it was going and could have frozen it until investigated because in order to start an account you have to give some personal information so I dont understand what is going on. Thats a lot of money for me and my time with my daughter is especially important right now and we were so looking forward to our visit and we spent all day looking for somewhere to stay with no money and she is sick. These people need to be found and stopped. The bank was totally useless and had all the power in this situation and did nothing to protect my hard earned money. Furthermore XXXX XXXX were just as bad and Im not sure their employee was above board either.