Consumer complaint received 2024-03-14 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: NE

Complaint narrative:
On XXXX XXXX XXXXXX/XX/year>, I was a victim of an account take over, my Ally savings account was hacked into and they wired all the money that I had ( {$9400.00} ) to an unknown account. They had my phone number, my user name, and knew exactly how much money was in my account. I did not provide them with this information. 

First, my debit card had fraudulent activity in late XXXX. I had to get a new Ally debit card. 

Then, on XXXX XX/XX/year>, I received a text supposedly from Ally letting me know that there was an attempt at a wire transfer. First in the amount of {$2000.00} and a second in the amount of {$9400.00}. The text asked if I initiated the wire and asked me to text YES or NO ( I indicated NO because I hadn't ). Then I received a text stating that an Ally representative would call me. I received a call from the Ally bank number ( XXXX ) and the man on the other end of the call stated that he was an Ally bank representative, then the standard spiel about the call being recorded and asking me to verify my phone number and birthday. He said that he needed to cancel the transfer going through as well as cancel my own account so he can set up a new account and in order to do all that, he needed my SSN ( which I did give him ) and also, that he would be sending several codes to my phone that I needed to repeat back to him, which I did. He then said that I should receive an email shortly with the information necessary to access my new account that he set up. He continued with telling me to be sure to not use my debit card at places like the gas station and to use the tap feature whenever possible to prevent people from being able to get the number and information on the card. He said that Ally would be calling me the next day about getting more information about the attempt at a fraudulent wire transfer and he even gave me an appt time of XXXX. He ended the call thanking me for banking with Ally " where security is number one ''. 

I logged on to my email to get the information so I could get into my new Ally account and instead, I saw that a wire transfer had gone through and when I logged on to my Ally account, I saw that my entire savings was gone. 

I immediately contacted Ally. They first told me that they considered a disputed transaction. Then I was contacted by Ally the next day ( XXXX XX/XX/year> ) by their fraud dept, and I explained what happened with the fraudster to them, shared that the fraudster already had my user name and phone number and knew how much money was in my account. Ally 's fraud dept stated that I was a victim of what they refer to as an " account take over '' ; that they have a department that handles account takeovers ; that they would need to close the savings account and give me a new savings account, new checking account and a new debit card ; and that she ( the Ally representative ) would help me with setting that up; and I was given a reference number that was assigned to the situation to refer to when talking to the fraud dept. 

On XXXX XX/XX/year>, I went to log in to my Ally account ( I had already changed my user name and password ) and they had shut my entire account down. I received no notice *at all* - no text, no email, nothing. Bear in mind that I was paid by my employer ( autopay ) later in the day on XXXX XX/XX/year> and that paycheck was intended for my mortgage payment and the only money that I had ; for Ally to shut my entire account down without notice was asinine. I called and I was told that because the account had been taken over, they needed to investigate and had up to 3 days to do that. ( For the record, I did receive notice from Ally that my account was going to be shut down XXXX XXXXby way of USPS mail. Ally is entirely an online bank, so, how does that make any sense? ) On XXXX XX/XX/year>, I returned a call from one of Ally 's investigators, XXXX XXXX I was unable to accept or return the call on XXXX XX/XX/year> because I was traveling for work ). I told XXXX exactly what had happened. He asked about the deposit from my employer on XXXX XX/XX/year>- I have been employed by my employer for years so the deposit isn't out of the ordinary. He said that he has all he needs and I asked if there was a timeframe for me to get my money back and he said that Ally is " is trying to recall it from the bank ''. What does that have to do with the fact that Ally recognizes this as fraud, an account takeover, and need to make me whole? He said that Ally is " on fire '' with these kind of fraudulent account takeovers and that they will be taking a " loss '' for the amount of them that exist. He said that my case is like all the others he is seeing. He told me that I can always call the number for the fraud dept and refer to the number associated with the investigation. 

Today, XXXX XX/XX/year>, I called and there is no update. I've been told that they can not say whether or not I will get my money back. Why? They themselves say that it is fraud, an account takeover, the fraudster had information about my account that I never provided. I bank mostly on my work computer and my mobile phone ( also used for work ) and since I work in a legal dept of a major company in the pharma industry, the security on my work computer and mobile phone is major- I had given Ally the name of the security applications on each. As for my personal PC which I only have ever used at home and is relatively new, I have XXXX on that - I told Ally that as well. 

I feel like the mistake here is Ally 's! In spite of my having given my SSN to a person calling from the Ally bank phone number and claiming to be an Ally rep and saying all the same things that an actual Ally rep did a month earlier when my Ally debit card was compromised, the mistake is Ally 's. If they themselves recognize this as fraud due to an account takeover, then they need to make me whole and provide me with the {$9400.00} that was taken from my savings.

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