A bank that built its business by working with members of the military, veterans and their families has reportedly denied a customer’s request for help after thousands of dollars disappeared in a mysterious hack.
Air Force veteran Cruzita Barron says a thief hacked into her account with the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) and stole a total of $10,000 in two unauthorized wire transfers, Fox News San Antonio reports.
Cruzita says USAA did not notify her that a significant amount of money was missing from her account, nor did the bank flag the transactions for suspicious activity. She only discovered the theft about a week after the incident when her card was declined while she was buying coffee.
Cruzita contacted USAA, who told her the thief had transferred her money to another bank into an account in her name. She asked the bank to follow the trail of the transactions, hoping that USAA would refund the money she lost after seeing that she had fallen victim to fraudulent online transfers.
But instead of getting a refund, USAA charged an additional $1,500 because the two $5,000 transfers left her account with a negative balance, according to the report.
Says Cruzita,
“Come on, how does that make sense? This honestly sucks, I’m sorry.”
Additionally, Cruzita says USAA has even frozen her checking and savings accounts due to suspicious activity, leaving her in financial distress.
“I saved that money and that money is important to me, and I feel like they’re not trying to find out where that money went to give it back to me.”
More than six weeks after the hacking incident, Cruzita contacted Fox News San Antonio’s Problem Solver, who contacted USAA on behalf of the Air Force veteran.
Within days, USAA issued Cruzita a partial refund of $8,500.
Says USAA,
“After further investigation, we have decided to refund the member for the money lost to fraud.”
USAA is a full-service bank with more than $2.423 billion in assets and more than 13 million members.
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