Consumer complaint received 2025-01-31 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX ( known as XXXX at the time ) scammed me and 6 of my friends for a total of {$3700.00} for XXXX tickets that he never gave us. The transactions happened over XXXX and XXXX was able to convince most of us that he was trustworthy and even said directly that " he wouldn't scam us, he's not that kind of person. '' I met XXXX in XXXX of XXXX backstage at a music festival in XXXX XXXX and got his contact info because we made small talk and he seemed like a cool guy. Over the coming months, XXXX would send me occasional friendly messages and even wish me a happy birthday in XXXX. When XX/XX/XXXX came around, I made a story post on my XXXX that my friends and I were looking for XXXX tickets to buy from anyone who happened to be selling. XXXX then reached out to me claiming that he worked press for XXXX and that they gave them a certain number of last-minute festival tickets to help the festival sell. I instantly took up the deal, as it was nearing the festival ( which was about a week away ), and immediately hit up my friends who were also looking for tickets, referring them to him. Over the course of that day, XXXX and I got into group chats with my friends to facilitate the deals, promising that he would hand deliver the wristbands by that night. 

Come that night, XXXX fabricated a story about how he was picking up the wristbands and was headed over only for him to never show up and completely go ghost on text communication. I tried calling my bank ( JPMorgan Chase ), to which they said they were not liable for any transactions that were executed via XXXX willingly. The only reason I was because of a friend who reached out claiming that she knew the guy after I took to social media about the issue ( I am a content creator, so I have about XXXX people who follow me and could know the person ). From here, I was able to find XXXX XXXX mother on XXXX, to which I messaged her, telling her about the situation and asking her to tell her son to please get back into contact with us so we could sort the situation out. She cooperated and was able to get XXXX to begin communications back up with us, and he apologized and admitted openly to scamming us because he was desperate for money. 

However, when it came to getting this issue solved through our banks, Chase was " not actually able to do anything '' because the transaction had been willingly taken on me and my friends ' sides ( we initiated the payment ). Even when XXXX told the alleged banker ( I say alleged because he is the one who got me on the phone with this person, so I don't actually know if it was a legitimate banker or not ) that he had scammed us, the bank still said it was out of their control because most of the funds had already been withdrawn and, once we had reported XXXX ( after realizing what had been done ) they had frozen his bank account completely and told him that he could only receive his money by requesting a cashier 's check. XXXX allegedly requested for this check, but continued to tell me over the coming weeks and months that they check had gotten " held up '' and that he could not afford to pay back the money he stole out of his own pocket ( claiming he had recently become jobless and had no source of income )XXXX XXXX XXXX mother also did not offer to help him with this matter and pay us back. 

It has now been around 9 months since the incident happened. XXXX has since stopped contacting me updating me about the situation and never paid back any of the stolen funds. I filed a police report back in XXXX to XXXX, but they have not contacted me since. I would like to, at the very least, get me and my friends ' money back, however, I understand that I may not be able to speak for my friends. Thus, I would like to request that I be paid back the {$1100.00} that was wrongfully taken from me and denied insurance or coverage via XXXXChase. It is appalling that, even after the scammer himself admitted to what he did with the bank, the bank could still not pay me back ( absolutely ridiculous ). 

I pray that the CFPB can hopefully do something about this considering that they are in a current lawsuit with Chase and XXXX XXXX over the matter of a multitude of customers getting scammed without anything being able to be done about it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation