Consumer complaint received 2025-03-26 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Money was taken from your account on the wrong day or for the wrong amount
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: KY

Complaint narrative:
Within the last 2 days I have been involved in a scam where a person pretending to be USAA representative moved XXXX dollars into my account ( via XXXX  ) and had me return it via XXXX. There was a lot to this prior to it where the person was expressing urgency to help stop someone from stealing my account ( this was the cover they used while also calling from a USAA number and the number in XXXX is related to a USAA location ). I started seeing the red flags during the conversation but I was too late. I did initiate the send for the XXXX and immediately realized I was being scammed and within minutes, hung up and called USAA. Once on the phone with the first representative ( their are voice recordings of us ), she and I worked to change all my account information ( password, pin, username ). I did this. From there she restricted my account, or I thought she did. She failed to convey that if I had a charge pending, the account would not be restricted. I left that conversation believing I had stopped them from any further attempts at theft. If the conversation was played back or the recording listened to, you would also hear me tell the representative that they have my social security number and all my information. So at this point the representative had all the information to infer this was identity theft, and regardless of a charge pending, someone had all of my account information and social security ( again this is reflected in the call I verbally stated this ). Additionally at the end of this call I asked the agent if I should consider closing my account, which she told me to hold off for the fraud department to call. This is where I do believe USAA dropped the ball hard for three reasons.

1. If my account would have been restricted ( regardless of debits and credits processing which I WAS NOT informed of and led to believe my account was restricted right at that moment ), this transaction would not have been able to process. I could have easily routed my business to another account and freed this up to allow the restriction to take place at that moment.

2. I do believe if the fraud department would have been in touch with me at this moment, they would have understood the situation and guided me in closing my account preventing all of what is now happening. This is their job. If they knew someone was walking around with all my information, and my account information, I believe they would have had the knowledge to guide me in preventing this. They have a 10 day max call back period. There should be exceptions to this when the matter is of upmost urgency such as this one where someone has all my information.

3. I don't understand, regardless of the scam, how a transaction pushing an account to XXXX dollars would not send a red flag to anyone. And also why USAA is okay with this which from my second call, they are. 

While I understand my faults of being tricked, I acted promptly and well within the time frame to prevent this from happening. USAA had plenty of chances to prevent this from happening. Working with USAA on this has been an unprofessional, untrustworthy experience. I've been hung up on twice ( because I didnt remember verification information which I corrected and got through ). I was treated like this wasn't an urgent matter. Led to believe certain acts were conducted that were not. In the end the result, my life is extremely effected by the loss of {$2500.00}. I immediately called an agent this morning and filed a dispute ( this was where I was hung up on twice before reaching an agent who wanted to help ). This is part of the urgent matter, that this account linked to my business, and my life and family, is now unusable and compromised. Additionally, if all the credentials were changed, and the scammers still got to my account, that means that are currently walking around with my account information right now ( Yet I'm suppose to allow fraud department up to 10 days ).. They had my social security, checking number, routing number, and all information related to me. My accounts negative so I can't buy any food, groceries, pay bills, or make transactions with my business. I can't explain how bad this is. I don't know if there is something someone can help with this but it would be appreciated if someone with a little more heart for their occupation could contact me and genuinely attempt to solve this matter instead of sweeping it under the rug. I will not let this go and will take whatever steps necessary to resolve this. USAA representative dropped the ball multiple times. I spent hours on the phone franticly expressing urgency for help. While the scam was initiated by me, I took all the precise steps to prevent it, and USAA, who's job is to help prevent fraud, took all the wrong steps to prevent situation which could have easily been prevented. I do expect reimbursement and will continue to escalate the situation as necessary if the situation is not approached with some professionalism and accountability. 

I have attached some photos from my phone showing the person, the fake number which directed me to a USAA location in XXXX XXXX, and more important, all the times of the calls that took place with USAA which can prove from the time of the transaction this morning, USAA had ample time to act to prevent this.

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 explanation