Consumer complaint received 2022-09-26
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Check cashing service
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (OH)

My daughter 's father ( my ex-husband ) passed away, he had a life insurance policy. His XXXX daughter wrote my daughter a check from the life insurance in the amount of XXXX. My daughter did not have a bank account, so we deposited the check in one of my checking accounts with Chase bank on XX/XX/XXXX. I've been a customer with Chase for 15 or so years. On XX/XX/XXXX my bank account showed a negative balance of {$52000.00}. I went to the Chase bank branch in XXXX XXXX Oh, worked with XXXX. Found out that my account was put in a restriction status eliminating my ability to access my money apart from the life insurance check. My daughter provided two forms of I.D., we were advised that the money transfers from our separate checking account would be returned by the following money. It was not. I called in again, and they advised the account was in restriction again because they needed to verify the check with the maker. I touched base with the person who wrote the check who advised she had not received any calls from Chase. I called in again and spoke with XXXX in Loss Prevention, who provided me with the phone numbers they were attempting to contact the maker. The issue here is the numbers they've been attempting to contact don't belong to the maker. One of them is her mother 's, whom she doesn't live with, the other, she's not aware of to who that number belongs. Called back again and talked to XXXX, I advised that the number they have on file doesn't belong to XXXX, and asked her to do a reverse lookup on the number that I have for the maker, which she was able to confirm that the number is listed for the maker, and spoke with the maker. XXXX un-restricted the account. The following day the account went back into restriction. Spoke with XXXX with loss prevention on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX confirmed the account was unlocked on Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX, and then restricted again by another group. She also confirmed that Chase has accepted the funds from XXXX ( who the check was written through ). I was escalated to XXXX with Account Supervisor/ Operating Loss Prevention Team Escalations. XXXX confirmed with the backing team, a level above Loss Prevention would need to verify the issuance of the check, which was already previously done on XX/XX/XXXX, because they dont see any notes. The account was unrestricted on XX/XX/XXXX, but a failure to update the account with the appropriate notes on the part of the Chase employee resulted in a second restriction. XXXX confirmed that he is putting notes in the bill with the maker 's correct phone number and contacting the person who released the account. XXXX tried to reach the maker, who was unable to answer because she was at work. XXXX advised me to call back in at XXXX when the maker would be available, and they would try again. This time I was routed to XXXX. XXXX advised they would not call the maker via the reverse lookup number. I asked what our next steps are, and she refused to answer what I need to do next to move this forward. She advised she would not tell me what the next steps were. They have the money but refuse to release it, We've provided all the documentation they've requested and jumped through all of the hoops, and still, they have kept my account restricted, which is negatively impacting my main checking account. I have no idea what to do. I've spent twelve or more hours trying to figure out what we need to do. We don't need the money, it's just that the account restriction means I can't move money to it or from it, so I'm going to start to accrue monthly charges as there isn't enough to cover outside of the XXXX check. I have been told on multiple occasions different expectations, none of which came to fruition. I finally got my personal ACH deposited money, but the consistent inaccuracies serve only to withhold the funds made available by the insurance company that Chase has accepted into their bottom line.