March 26, 2003
Ms. Terry Messina
US Bank
1 E. Liberty St.
Box 1
Reno, NV 89504CKN
Dear Madam:
US Bank has seriously erred and in so doing has caused me significant damage. I request that the bank correct its errors and redress my grievances immediately.
Chronicle of Events
For several years I have been an excellent client of US Bank, maintaining both personal and business accounts. I have never issued a check with insufficient funds or overdrawn my account.
On Wednesday March 13, 2003, in the US Bank main Reno office, at 300 S Virginia St.
Reno, NV, I personally deposited a $9,500.00 Bank of America cashier’s check into my checking account. I had received this check as part of an Internet based business transaction and deposited it in good faith. Being a conscientious and responsible businessperson, and as is my normal procedure, I asked the teller when the funds for this check would be available. Your teller told me that the funds would be available in 24 hours.
On Thursday March 14, 2003, after ascertaining on-line that the deposit had been recorded, I returned to the S. Virginia St. branch. After confirming with the teller that the check had cleared and the funds were indeed available, I withdrew $5,200 in cash from my account and sent it, via Western Union, to my customer in Nigeria as required by terms of the Internet transaction. Subsequently, I also issued various checks for $3,323.01 based upon the information I received from your bank that the check had cleared and the money was available.
Early in the morning on March 19, 2003, while checking my account status on-line, I noticed that the $9,500 Bank of America cashier’s check I had deposited on the 13th, had “bounced.” I called the bank’s 800 number at 6:30 AM and was informed that US Bank had passed the check along to Bank of America, who had discerned that the check was counterfeit. The 800 number representative told me to take the matter up with the local branch.
I immediately notified the FBI’s Internet Fraud Unit and then waited for the local branch to open.
At 9 AM I spoke with two different tellers at US Bank’s S. Virginia St. branch. They referred me to your bank’s fraud department. At 9:30 AM, I called your bank’s fraud department and they informed me that I had fallen victim to a new variation of the notorious Nigerian e-Mail Scam and that I should speak with the Reno main office branch manager. This I did at 10 AM.
The branch manager, Ms. Marsha Adams, told me that the responsibility was all mine. There was “nothing that the bank could do” for me. Quite the contrary, she said that as a consequence of depositing a counterfeit check, my credit rating would be tagged and that, until I had fully repaid US Bank Corp for all of the unsecured funds it released to me, I would be blacklisted, unable to open a bank account with any other financial institution.
At 10:15 AM I spoke with Mr. Jeff Puffer of the US Secret Service. He asked me for all of the documentation. He assured me that he had informed and warned all of the local banks and the Western Union offices to be on the lookout for this scam, which had already stung more than 8 people in the Reno area alone. I had, evidently, become yet another one of its victims.
At 1 PM on that same day, Laurie Long from the Meadowood US Bank branch called me to inform me of the check not clearing. Although she sounded apologetic, she also said that there was nothing she could do about it. She requested that I inform the bank of any additional information I discovered.
The bank wasted no time in following through on its threats. It confiscated all of the money in all of my accounts, attacked my credit rating, and initiated procedures to prevent me from doing business with any financial institution.
US Bank’s Unconscionable Actions
The actions and reactions of US Bank in this whole situation are blatantly unprofessional, unfair, unjustified, and unconscionable. I was the unwitting victim of a scam, not a criminal. As I have trusted US Bank with my funds in the past, I deposited the check in person, in good faith, and followed the instructions that the bank gave me, also in good faith. Before withdrawing any of the funds from that check, I came to the bank, in person, and verified that the check had cleared and that the funds were indeed available. Had the bank not informed me that the funds I had deposited were available and that I could withdraw them, I would not have. If the professionals at the bank could not discern that the check I received was counterfeit, how could I, a layperson, do so? If the professionals at the bank, who, according to the US Secret Service, had been warned to be on the lookout for this scam, did not catch the bogus check, how could I, a layperson without the benefit of the warning, do so? If I have erred here, it is in relying upon and trusting the information I received from your bank and its representatives. It was US Bank who informed me of when the funds from the check would be available, and it was US Bank who confirmed that the “check had cleared.” It was US Bank that knowingly released those funds to me. The errors were the bank’s, not mine.
US Bank and its staff are obviously endeavoring to cover up their own mistakes by attempting to shift the blame to me, their customer, and using the advantage of the bank’s powerful position as a large financial institution to extort money from me.
The bank threatens and carries out attacks on my good name. It damages my credit rating, a credit rating that I have been very careful to protect. It prevents me from being able to conduct business in the normal and accepted manner of using financial institutions, checking accounts and credit cards. The bank must know that in pursuing this policy of intimidation it is causing me tangible, severe, and quantifiable damages; damages for which it and it alone is responsible.
If there is a problem, the bank should first verify the facts and investigate the situation before taking punitive measures. Shooting first and asking questions only afterwards is inappropriate. Such conduct is completely unprofessional and completely unjust.
I request that the bank immediately undo any damage it has done to my credit rating and my ability to conduct business with financial institutions. I request that the bank immediately credit my account for the full sum of the check that it cleared and then revoked. I also request that the bank immediately return all of the money that it took from my account in order to reimburse itself with my funds for the results of its own errors.
It is my sincere hope that the unjust actions taken so far by US Bank are merely the misdeeds of misguided employees and that they do not represent the true policy of your institution.
I look forward to hearing a favorable and prompt reply to this, my request for professional and ethical redress for the damages the bank has caused me.
Sincerely Yours,
Name
Cc: Mr. Jerry A. Grundhofer
CEO & President, US Bank
Nevada Attorney General’s Office
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Division of Consumer and Community Affairs
L. Scott Walshaw
NV Commissioner, Financial Institutions
NV Consumer Affairs Commission
BBB of Northern Nevada, Inc.
BBB (National Office)
Congressman Jim Gibbons
