JPMorgan Chase is saying tough luck to a customer after the bank handed tens of thousands of dollars over to an imposter with a fake ID.
Justin Lee says he lost $30,000 after a man with false identification and an incorrect social security number walked into a Chase branch and convinced the bank to hand the money over, reports WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia.
Since the incident, Lee has over a year fighting to get his funds back.
He initially lost an arbitration case and then sent a letter to Senator Sherrod Brown, who leads the Senate Banking Committee.
Brown says his office is now personally involved in pushing Chase to do right by its customer.
“We’ve sent a letter to the banks. We’ve reached out to them, we’ve pushed them. We’re hopeful that they’re going to come to the table and fix this.”
Lee says Chase has done nothing to help, and he won’t get any assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation either, which is designed to support depositors in the event of a bank’s collapse.
The agency does not protect anyone due to a loss by fraud or theft.
The Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) and Regulation E are designed to assist people who lose money in certain types of wire transfer scams.
However, the regulations don’t cover customers who authorize scammers to move money out of their accounts.
