This bank is in a fairly small college town. I have had my Social Security directly deposited for many years at this same bank.in March of last year I was taken in on the "419 scam" from Nigeria.
I had my car advertised on the internet for sale, got an offer from an interested buy and after several emails found out that they were in a foreign country. I wasn't sure about this and asked 2 people that I knew that were car dealers and was told that it is not unusual for cars to be shipped to other countries.
The check was a cashiers check, sent by Fed-X, but was made out for more that the asking price, the remainder I was to wire back via Western Union, a name and address was given to me, and I did this as soon as that bank released the funds to me.
The above is a brief recap that leads to my problems with Community Guaranty Savings Bank. On March 31/03 I took the check in to put into my account. The bank employees know me so they were a little surprised at the amount of the check...$5,350.16. I explained that I had sold my car over the internet and had to wire $3000.00 back to the buyer. To make this clear, originaly in the emails, the scammer led me to believe that his agent would be picking my car up and the overage in the check was to go to him as payment.
After the check had cashed, the scammer emailed me that his agent would not be able to be there and that he trusted me to wire the money back to him instead.
And now, back to the bank. I asked how long it would take for the check to "clear", I was told that funds would be "available" the next day. I've come to find that this is #1 in my ignorance. Many people, including myself, do not know that a check "clearing" and funds "available" are very different. #2, we have always been told that a cashiers check is safe and good.
On April 1/03 I returned to the bank and withdrew the cash and immediately wired the $3000.00 to the name that was given me, I did not want to keep this person's money any longer than I had to.
On April 8/03, I was notified by the bank that the check was counterfeit and that the police had been called. I went to the bank not knowing what I was going into. The police had taken the report and left before I got there.
I was afraid of being arressted, confused at what was happening, and had no idea that these scams existed. I would have agreed to probably anything at this point just to make things right. This bank said that they would give me a loan for the $5,000.00, wanted the titles to both of my cars and have an interest of 12.9%. This is the same bank that had turned me down for a loan months prior to this for $2000.00 using my car as collateral.
Since then I have done a lot of research about this scam, banking procedures, FDIC and OCC. I was in awe when I saw the number of alerts that FDIC and OCC have sent to financial institutions for years about this very scam, I was also furious that this bank never gave me a clue that it even existed. These people are all the same, honest people that needed to sell an item because they need the money as I did.
We all trusted our banks... They are the ones with the knowledge and we trust them to do what is right.in my bank there was never a posting or even an insert with statement to beware. I asked a banker why this was never done and was told in so many words, that it would be a waste of time for tellers to tell everyone and most people don't even read the inserts anyway???
Does the FDIC and OCC realize they are wasting their time and money sending this "junk mail" to financial institution?
The scammers know our banking systems and Western Union, they are the "open gates" that make this successful... Somebody is not seeing this picture. The banks make money from it, Western Union makes it's money from it and the victim who is completely ignorant pays dearly. The bank has a phrase of "in good faith" that is a big blanket of protection for them and seems to cover a lot.
Community Guaranty violated the "midnight law", in the police report it was stated that they were notified on the 3rd of the month that the check was counterfeit, yet I was not notified until the 8th, nor were the police.
My total income is $583.00 per month, out if this the loan payment of $156.00 is immediately taken out and what is left is for me to live on and pay bills for the month. I can't sell one of the cars now for extra cash because the bank has the titles. This is causing many hardships for me.
Last week I took a letter along with documents that I had found in my researching to Community Guaranty Bank. I told them that I could not afford this and that I felt that I was treated unfairly, having the knowledge that they did, I had trusted them.
I asked that they come to some reasonable agreement with me and bear some of this responsibility. I received an answer today basically saying that they have to make funds "available" in 24 hours, thus making them not responsible for anything after that but that I could make an appointment to come in to talk with them.
I've gotten an attorney, and am filing this report instead. I do not want to deal with this bank myself again, I no longer trust them.
If the banks and Western Union were made to share the responsibility, especially after they have been aware that this is happening, we might see this scam slow down if not stop, in this way anyway. As I said previously, the scammers are smart enough to know that these to very important "gates" are open to them to make it successful and that the consumers are usually ignorant.
To sum up, this bank treated me very unfairly, denies any facts that they know of the scam in spite of the list of alerts that I gave them, and as long as they can make money from the interest on loans why shouldn't they? They are covered by their "good faith" phrase, they know that most consumers believe in them to know what is safe for their customers, and that they have all of the banking knowledge that is unknown to us.
Something has to be done to make them more responsible and not be covered by this wide blanket of protection and phrases that they have that are only known to them. I see them as accomplices in these scams.
0 comments