Consumer complaint received 2026-07-01 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: SC

Complaint narrative:
I want to begin by stating the bank is " in process '' regarding giving me information about my investigation. But as of now, I have not gotten this ( but I am surely getting collections calls from USAA on a near non-stop basis! ). This all began on XXXX XX/XX/year>. While at home after work, I got a series of fraud alerts on my phone about an attempted charge that I did not make of {$57.00} ( repeated 6 times ). This was approximately XXXX XXXX. This was immediately followed by a phone call from a phone number that showed on the screen as XXXX. As a USAA member for nearly 30 years, I was aware this is their main customer number to start any call. Believing it was a call to alert me to the charges and block them. As it turns out, the number was spoofed for USAA. The call hung up followed by an immediate second call from a XXXX area code. I believed this was simply the phone of the department from USAA banking calling me back ( phone call dropped, etc. ). I thought nothing of it, USAA is a large organization. This call was an individual posing as a USAA representative. Again, as a nearly 30 year customer I am aware of their opening dialogue with customers. This individual had that dialogue or script very well rehearsed. I gave them my information that would be standard for USAA ( phone PIN ), name, etc. They asked if I just had a transaction for {$57.00}, to which I replied " no I did not authorize this ''. The representative ( XXXX XXXX ) then asked me about the charge and asked me to hold. Then came back and tried to get information from me to " finish filing the claim ''. Then they kept mentioning they were preparing a path to try to catch the fraudulent charges and kept telling me to hang on. They made this sound very legitimate, but at this point I began to wonder to myself " ok, this is kind of odd ''. Next, the XXXX XXXX asked if I used something like XXXX and asked for my XXXX username. I provided that as this was something I knew would not directly give them access to take money. However, they used this to send me a request or " invoice '' to my XXXX account. Here, they asked me to hit " send '' on a {$12000.00} request, telling me that it was a " honey trap '' type thing to catch the person responsible for my charge. At this time, I became keenly aware this now was a scam. To verify, I asked to speak to their supervisor and was met with silence. My actions * * * in this very specific order * * * were to ( XXXX ) Immediately close XXXX without approving any transaction ( my XXXX records validate I did not approve ), I then ( XXXX ) Logged on to USAA and immediately changed my PIN. Then ( XXXX ) Immediately called USAA to report what had occurred. I have phone records that show I called the USAA XXXX XXXX at XXXX. I spent about XXXX minutes on a call with the representative. I told them that I changed my PIN and what had occurred. At this point, I felt I was in the free and clear. I did not approve a XXXX transaction. I did not give the XXXX XXXX my debit card number, even if they had stole it, I changed my PIN and told them to lock my card. USAA has a sterling reputation as a bank that takes fraud seriously. I rested easy, ate dinner, and went on with my life. I come to learn the next day, XXXX XX/XX/year>, that {$12000.00} was not in my account. What the con artist ( s ) did was to access my accounts ( including my mother 's accounts - I believe XXXX total ) and transferred all of that into my USAA checking account. That is what would have covered the {$12000.00} ( had I actually authorized anything ). The thing is, I never explicitly gave anyone explicit ( e.g., button click ) or implicit ( e.g., verbal consent ) to take ANY money from any account. In short, the account was compromised online and funds were taken from this breach, I simply do not know any way this could have happened otherwise ( the transfers included ). At this point, it is important to note that the funds displayed as out of my account on XXXX XXXX, not XXXX XXXX when USAA was informed of the problem. They had time to stop any kind of fraudulent transaction, but did not. Once the problem was realized on XXXX XXXX that {$12000.00} was missing, I again called USAA. I spoke with them about XXXX minutes. The {$12000.00} was returned to my account on XXXX XX/XX/year>. At this point, I set funds back to their respective accounts through USAA.com to funding levels at or near where they were prior to this event. I knew from the discussion the fraud team was doing an investigation. At this point, I considered this a " slam dunk '' kind of thing. I know I did nothing wrong, so assumed it would be taken care of simply be a lesson learned about always being on the lookout for scams. However, I saw an email alert on XXXX XX/XX/year> that showed an overdraft charge to an account that had {$1300.00} the day before and was puzzled as to how and why. My first instinct was maybe my account got compromised again. However, it was USAA who came in to take the funds and claimed in a comically short letter that it was not fraud and I was liable. Obviously a lot of emotions flooded me, anger, bewilderment, you name it. I spoke with USAA the same day and was told nothing can be done but to send the narrative as to why they somehow came to this ruling. That has not gotten to me yet. This is where things stand now : My account overdrawn {$10000.00}, USAA hounding me for recuperating funds, despite my very clear declaration that I would be challenging this ruling. Just XXXX. Now seeing why people buried cash after the XXXX XXXX. This has irreparably damaged my trust level for USAA.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief