Consumer complaint received 2024-12-04 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Banking errors
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MI

Complaint narrative:
In XXXX of XXXX, I fell for bank fraud. The bank is Fifth Third, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX. I am a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  I received a request, via text and then through email communication, about painting a vacant house in XXXX, MI. I live in XXXX, MI. I agreed to do the job without having looked the job over. Over text and email, we agreed upon {$3000.00}. The person had a cashier 's check for {$6900.00} sent via XXXX XXXX, which I deposited. Then he claimed his secretary had made and mistake. He asked me to send {$4000.00} by cashier 's check to a certain XXXX address. After the bank cleared the check two days later, I did so. XXXX 5 days later, through other transactions that this person wanted me to make, I realized it was a fraud transaction. Then two days later, the bank informs me that the check was fraudulent. 

The bank 's view of the matter is that, since I had drawn {$4000.00} from that check, I am responsible for paying it back. They are adding steep interest fees in the meantime. In conversations with representatives of the fraud department, I was repeatedly told that this particular kind of fraud was not covered by their fraud policy. In short, they are basically accusing me of being involved in the fraud, without taking my view of the matter into account. I have filled a police report and have spoken with a detective. 

My view of this matter is that the bank is responsible for approving the {$4000.00} withdrawal. I would not have drawn {$4000.00} if I had been told the check had not yet cleared. But two days after the deposit, my online bank statement showed an entry for a deposit of {$6900.00}. The deposit amount always shows up as green to indicate the check funds are approved. When the bank learned the check was fraud 6 days later, they deleted the {$6900.00} from the account, which left a {$4000.00} negative balance in the account. I had not sent the remaining over payment amount out yet. 

My complaint is that 5th 3d does not use an honest " cleared check '' policy. In my view, the bank is at fault. It turns out that clearing a check two days after it has been deposited is meaningless. The check did not clear the real test until it came back as fraud days later. I told the bank I had no clue that a check is not really cleared until days later, if it is fraud. The bank has never made this clear to me in any prior communication. I told one representative that not even my lawyer, who I talked with about this, who specializes in criminal law, did not know that it is meaningless when a bank clears a check green on an account. The representative said, " If you had asked me ( about when a check is really cleared ), I would have told you. '' Wow. Even the deposit slip I received with the deposit says nothing at all about the possibility that a check might not be good, even if it has been cleared green. The deposit receipt is further misleading about what really goes on. It says, " Fifth Third employs a number of fraud protection measures... " But not in my case. The deposit receipt says nothing about the fact that not all cases of fraud will be covered. Leaving that out also misleads a customer. 

I never knew, because the bank never made it clear, that clearing a check green on an account might be meaningless. The bank never made clear that the real test of a good check takes several days. And yet I am to blame, in their view, for having withdrawn funds on a fraud deposit. How in the world can this be just? How in the world can a bank get away with such duplicity, with such failure to communicate clearly, and then blame the customer? That sounds like fraud to me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation