05/03/2020
Is the financial institution required to accept a Reg E Claim for a customer who states that he/she purchased a gift card and later finds out it was a scam? The customer has already contacted the merchant and the merchant has blocked further usage of the gift card and has notified our customer that they will credit her the funds that were not used but they will not credit her for the funds that have been used. The bank is not responsible for submitting a claim to the merchant for those funds, correct? In this case, the customer is responsible for the amount that was used by the scammer? Example: Customer purchased a $300 Amazon Gift card, finds out it was a scam, contacts Amazon, Amazon notifies him that $100 has already been used but they have blocked the card and will issue him credit for $200, and now the customer wants to file a claim to get the $100 back.
12/15/2019
Customer of credit union removed his attorney-in-fact from having this designation on his account. Three years later he went to the credit union
and verbally asked to make sure that the AIF was "off" his accounts in every way. Two years later the ex-AIF presented a customer service request
document adding herself as beneficiary. If this is a forgery as claimed, it appears to bear a good one of customer's signature. Is credit union liable
for now having paid her as beneficiary?
08/25/2019
What avenues of recovery are there for an issuing bank where their customer is killed abroad, and fraudulent transactions are made by the perpetrator after the killing and subsequent theft? The killing occurred 26 days ago, and the transactions occurred the day of the killing and the following day.To make matters worse, the card used was a MasterCard debit card, and the perpetrator somehow obtained access to the PIN.
06/23/2019
We have received debit card disputes from multiple customers that believed they were making arrangements to purchase a pet from someone that posted an ad on Facebook. In each case, the customer selected a pet from a photo they received from the "seller" and then sent money as instructed via PayPal, Zelle, Western Union, etc. All transactions were initiated with debit card information. After payment was sent, each customer realized/decided that they are most likely the victim of a scam, and no pet will be received.
Are these transactions fully covered by Reg E? I'm struggling to come to a conclusion, because at least one customer is unable to provide documentation that indicates when the pet is expected to be received. In all cases, the customers willingly provided their card information and sent money to someone they do not know.
06/02/2019
My bank has received a counterfeit check from a depositing bank. Our customer called the day the check cleared his account and we returned the check to the Bank of First Deposit on the same day as reported.
Who will take the loss on this item, the BOFD or my bank? And should we treat this as a fraud/ disputed item ?
05/26/2019
If you see large dollar transfers from a person's business account (an LLC) to a person's personal account, and then you see large AMEX payments on both accounts, would you consider that co-mingling funds?
02/10/2019
An item was presented for cash at the bank. The handwriting and signature matched our customer's previous checks and signature card. However, the customer is now stating that they did not process this item and it is a forgery. What due diligence does the bank have to follow since we believe this is NOT a forgery but our customer trying to gain funds. The customer has completed and signed an affidavit of forgery. Does the bank have an obligation to give credit back to the customer without an investigation or police report filed? At what point is our customer liable?
01/27/2019
A longtime customer came into the Bank and presented the teller with a check. The teller asked the customer about the check and she stated that she had received the check in the mail as part of her winning the Publisher's Clearing House. The letter instructed her to cash the check and submit a portion of the funds back to them while they finalized the issuance of the "large" winning check. This sounded strange to the teller who called a supervisor and through research found the check to be fraudulent. The supervisor retained the fraudulent check refusing to return it to the customer (fearing she would take it to another bank).
Does the bank have the right to retain the fraudulent check or should it have been returned to the customer, or should the check be destroyed and documented that such action was taken?
12/16/2018
In regards to fraudulent debit card charges, the bank I work at in California requires our customers to try to get the money back (even though it's fraud) before they will file the claim. From working at other banks, it was always my understanding that when it's a fraudulent charge, we file the claim and the customers do not have to try to get any money back. Are we in violation by requiring them to contact the stores/vendors to try to get money back? We haven't come across any situations where the vendor can even bring up the charge since it's not in our customer's name and we don't have any order number or anything.
11/11/2018
What is the bank's responsibility in regards to customers with diminished capacity? I have an elderly customer with dementia who makes frequent trips to the bank (often multiple times a day) and is in an advanced state of confusion. He often requests to take all of the money from his sizable checking account. While he has every right to his money, we are concerned that he is incapable of managing his finances on his own and is an easy target for criminals. He is walking around with a significant amount of cash in his wallet. While it does not appear that he has been abused financially, he does not have family who is willing to help him out. It is obvious that he no longer needs to be in control of his finances. As his bank, what are our options as far as keeping both the customer and his assets safe?
