Consumer complaint received 2025-03-05 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Early Warning Services, LLC
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
XXXX XXXX XXXX Zelle transaction induced fraud / authorized fraud crimes in the amounts of : {$540.00} ( XX/XX/XXXX ), {$2000.00} ( XX/XX/XXXX ), {$2400.00} ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and {$2800.00} ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and XXXX Zelle transaction induced fraud / authorized fraud crimes in the amount of {$2400.00} ( XX/XX/XXXX ) Refer to the XXXX attached files as well! 

Note : This report includes Zelle transactions made from my XXXX XXXX and XXXX bank accounts at the direction of the same bad actors money mule ecosystem team performing the scam to defraud me! 

First, my family and I have been threatened of being harmed by your customers and their ecosystem of team members. You let criminals into your banks and they know our names, address and more about us due to using a story of they are shipping things to XXXX / victims and need our address and phone. 

While reading our attached reports understand the shipping company is not real, is not licensed as they say and has created fake documents to appear real including using money mules that become scam bankers clients and once they are into your banks they have will to rob/ steal by inducing innocent bank clients o XXXX money to the thieves you let into your banks as customers. I contacted the agencies the shipper says created the documents for receipts and emails were contacted and they all reported they have no such shipper, documents or involvement. These criminals are that good at creating fake websites that look real and even give a way to track the shipment and at creating fake names and ID 's to open up bank accounts at your banks. 

With that we will not stop until we get justice and made whole, with the help of the CFPB and other agencies like major media to the Bureau of Financial Institutions. You should consider this when making your decision to do the right thing! 

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report dated XX/XX/XXXX, by Chairman XXXX XXXX, United States Senate defines scam as : Scams include instances when a consumer is tricked or persuaded into authorizing a payment for a good or service that is never provided ( XXXX this XXXX page investigation report ). 

I report that all services I paid for have never and will never be received and that I was scammed, tricked into induced fraud by your bank customers due to the banks failures to XXXX. Basically the banks are letting their customers rob innocent customers. The bank let them in! The herein and attached documents will support and expose these statements. 

I have experienced exactly what you ( the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - CFPB ) report of in the XX/XX/XXXX lawsuit against XXXX XXXX Zelle XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( court case # XXXX, copy attached ). This case shows banks let these criminals into their banks not us. We have been threatened of being harmed by your customers! 

Please read this and the attached documents in their entirety to learn the full details and extent of this crime/s ( induced fraud, authorized fraud, scams, identity theft, fake shipper website, fake companies, using money mules ). 

I have learned ( after the fact ) that at least XXXX - XXXX banks have known about this problem for years ( read the lawsuit identified above and the other reports cited herein ) and that the banks are knowingly opening up accounts and then blaming the victims ( the banks innocent customers ) for working with thieves, the customer/s the bank/s opened up the account for. 

Because of the " Know Your Client '' laws the banks make the victims ( me included ) think and feel it is safe and secure to use the bank services ( Zelle XXXX bank wires ) to other banks/ customers only to now learn after the fact that the banks knew of these criminals for years and never warned the customers. The criminals were allowed to opened up bank accounts with fake ID 's, documents, credentials, aliases, fake nonexistent businesses names ( using names very similar to real business ), which if we can find this out the banks certainly should have caught this and denied the account. The banks failed to protect its customers, failed to do basic verification on the criminals and the fake credential they use, causing me financial and emotional harm to say the least. 

I filed fraud claims for each of these induced fraud Zelle transaction with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Zelle in XXXX, XXXX / XXXX, XXXX only to experience exactly what is reported of within the CFPB XX/XX/XXXX court case against EWS / XXXX XXXX ( identified above ). The answer were the blanket I authorized the transaction, no help or return of funds even though the bank and Zelle report they are safe and secure and in the event of an imposter scam or fraud we are eligible for reimbursement as stated on XXXX website. I doubt that XXXX. / XXXX XXXX Zelle even cared about or took the time to read my report about the crime. Not to mention the banks let these criminals into their banks not us. Please read the attached to see a copy of the statements from Zelle about reimbursements which we looked into on their website prior to ever considering Zelling these funds. 

But for Zelle 's and the Banks comments of reimbursing and safe and secure promises and the Banks " Know Your Client '' requirements under the law we would NEVER had Zelled or wired funds to their bad actor/ criminal customers they are allowing into their banks as customers. 

Why were we not told about these findings in the next paragraphs as this is what has happened to us as well? : The CFPB alleges widespread consumer losses since Zelles XXXX launch due to the platforms and the defendant banks failure to implement appropriate fraud prevention and detection safeguards. The CFPB alleges that XXXX  XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and Early Warning Services violated federal law through critical failures including : - Leaving the door open to scammers : Zelles limited identity verification methods have allowed bad actors to quickly create accounts and target Zelle users. 

- Allowing repeat offenders to hop between banks : Early Warning Services and the defendant banks were too slow to restrict and track criminals as they exploited multiple accounts across the network. Banks did not share information about known fraudulent transactions with other banks on the network. As a result, bad actors could carry out repeated fraud schemes across multiple institutions before being detected, if they were detected at all. 

- Ignoring red flags that could prevent fraud : Despite receiving hundreds of thousands of fraud complaints, the defendant banks have failed to use this information to prevent further fraud. They also allegedly violated the Zelle Networks own rules by not reporting fraud incidents consistently or on time.

- Abandoning consumers after fraud occurred : Despite obligations under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E, the defendant banks failed to properly investigate Zelle customer complaints and take appropriate action for certain types of fraud and errors.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation