A Georgia woman added fraud protection alerts to her bank account after the first time crooks targeted her checking account.
But that did not stop the bank from allowing two more major withdrawals totaling more than $20,000.
Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray reports the bank then told her she was responsible for the stolen money.
The first big cash withdrawal what at a Truist branch in a North Carolina town Brenda Lacey had never heard of.
The withdrawal slip has a signature that’s nothing like the signature Truist has on file for her.
“I pulled up my accounts and I’m like, something’s not right. That balance is not correct,” she said.
That’s when Lacey noticed the first fraudulent withdrawal on her Truist account.
It would not be the last.
“There was a cash withdrawal for $17,000,” Lacey said.
Lacey lives in north Georgia, where she runs the family engine repair business with her husband and son.
That withdrawal was north of Charlotte. The imposter allegedly claimed to have lost their driver’s license.
Truist refunded the money, and Lacey asked to add more fraud protections, alerts to prevent a repeat.
“Anything $1,000 or more, I was to be notified by email or by phone,” she said.
But that did not happen, with two more cash withdrawals, this time in South Carolina for $19,000 and $8,000.
There were no calls or emails from Truist to check if they were legitimate transactions, even with the fraud alerts activated.
“I mean I’m 74 years old, almost 75, still working, and so it’s not easy to come by. We’ve worked hard all of our lives,” she said.
And this time, there was no refund.
Truist twice denied Lacey’s fraud claims, instead blaming her, writing “Truist denies your claim for reimbursement because of negligence in safeguarding access to account information and or financial documents.”
“I have no way of knowing how they got my information,” Lacey said.
“I’m not a rich person by any means, and you know, this hurts. It really does”
There was one more fraud attempt where a Truist bank teller did notice the alert on the account called Lacey and stopped it.
This fight has been going on since March, but Friday, Channel 2 Investigates reached out to Truist.
An attorney for the bank did present Lacey Friday afternoon with a settlement agreement that will repay her the stolen money.
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