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Report: #1245053

Complaint Review: Nationwide Bank - Internet

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Not Applicable — Olathe Kansas USA
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • Nationwide Bank Internet USA
  • Phone: 8774226569
  • Web:
  • Category: Banks

Nationwide Bank Nationwide Insurance, Allied Insurance Identity Theft, Fraud, Attorney General, OCC, FTC, BBB Cranberry Township Internet

*Author of original report: Contact from Nationwide

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Back in May of this year, I received a letter from Nationwide Bank that stated they had turned down a checking acccount in my name due to failing to authenticate my identity. I have credit freezes on all three of my credit bureaus and list specific instructions on my bureaus to require copies of my social security card and driver's license when issuing credit.

The woman that I initially spoke to at Nationwide Bank, Taylor, stated they primarily do online banking. When I asked her to look up application, I had to ask her at least three times because she stated she normally doesn't ask for social security numbers. When she finally looked up the application, she refused to tell me any details about the transactions, such as a specific time stamp of when the application was turned down. She stated this would interfere with law enforcement, which is ridiculous according to my local police department. So I filed an indentity theft report with my local police department and supplied Nationwide Bank with the case number, the police officer's name, and her badge number. I thought this problem was completely resolved, but on 07/28/2015, I received two more letters from Nationwide Bank: one dated 07/17/2015 and the other dated 07/20/2015. 

The one dated 07/17/2015 stated an account was opened in my name on that date, and they sent me the terms and conditions of the checking account. The one dated 07/20/2015 was a letter about an NSF check. Therefore, Nationwide Bank opened a checking account in my name despite notifying them in May that my identity was stolen, despite providing them with a case number, and despite the freezes on my credit bureaus and the explicit instructions to ask for a copy of my social security card and my driver's license.

On 07/29/2015, I called Nationwide again to notify them that they were grossly neglient when opening this checking account in my name, specifically because I had notified them about the identity theft and had provided them with a case number months before. The first person I spoke to, Nijea, refused to give me the collective dollar amount of bounced checks to date. When I told her they are required to supply this information per the FTC's website, she stated she would transfer me to their fraud department. After being left on hold for almost 15 minutes, she told me no one was available in the department, but she would have someone call me back. I asked to speak to her supervisor, and she transferred me to a person named Matt. I voiced my displeasure with Nationwide to Matt, and again asked for the current dollar amount of bounced checks on the account, since I know the OCC, the FTC, the Attorney General, and the BBB will want to know the figures in the complaints. He also refused to provide me with the information.

When I originally filed the identity theft report with my police report, the officer told me they had had people all week coming in to file identity theft problems against this company. Three were on Monday alone. When I told the officer that Nationwide refused to give me details about the application, stating that it would interfere with law enforcement's investigation, she disagreed with what they said and stated they should supply victims with this type of information. When I updated my report last evening, the police officer on duty couldn't believe the company opened an account in my name despite alerting them in May about the identity theft and despite supplying them with the case number filed through the police department. In my opinion, this is gross negligence and the company should be held accountable for their actions.

First of all, I worked in underwriting for over 15 years, so I understand how the approval and turndown process works. When I contacted Nationwide, they clearly should have flagged the application turndown properly, specifically noting it as identity theft. That way, if someone else tried to apply for an account in my name, their computer system would have been able to cross reference previous applications and current accounts. And if a suspicious cross reference was found, their computer system should have automatically turned down the account or it should have been forwarded to an actual live underwriter for approval. When I said this to the supervisor I spoke with, Matt, he stated from my perspective it would look like they were incompetent.

If you have been a victim of identity theft with this company, I would suggest that you file complaints with the following agencies:

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)

http://www.occ.gov/

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

https://www.ftc.gov/

The Attorney General of PA

https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/SplashPage.aspx

Your state Attorney General

The Better Business Bureau

 

 

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 07/29/2015 09:04 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/nationwide-bank/internet/nationwide-bank-nationwide-insurance-allied-insurance-identity-theft-fraud-attorney-ge-1245053. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
1Author
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#1 Author of original report

Contact from Nationwide

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Thursday, August 06, 2015

I spoke to Doug Nagel, an Associate Vice President, at the bank on Tuesday.  Although he apologized for my ongoing problems with the bank, the details of the approval alarmed me. He was very honest about what had occurred considering the previous banking employees had refused to tell me any details about the account, including the dollar amount of NSF checks.

First of all, despite calling and e-mailing Nationwide back in May about the identity theft, their system does not allow for unapproved applications to be flagged for identity theft. They also do not mail identity theft packages to people who only have turned down applications. These are only sent out when a person has had an account opened in their name. Although I gave them an identity theft case number from the Olathe Police Department, it also must not have been made available on the unapproved application. Rather, when the application was originally turned down, their system advised the identity thief that they would approve the application if he or she could verify four pieces of information. So this identity thief went out and collected these pieces of information and supplied them almost two months later.  Despite my credit freezes, which they were completely aware of, they did not require a photo id or other type of solid identifying information (e.g. copy of a social security card). According to FDIC banking laws, I don’t understand how they could not require this type of information, especially a state id or a state driver’s license. My credit union states they are required to obtain this type of information, so why an online bank is not required to collect this type of documentation is beyond my comprehension, especially considering all the online crime that occurs in today’s age.

From my understanding, one piece of identifying information they asked for was the year, make, and model of my vehicle. Doug did not supply me with the other identifiers. Considering our auto insurance and homeowner’s insurance is through Allied, a subsidiary of Nationwide Bank, if there was a security breach, the thief could have easily obtained this information. Moreover, I would imagine Allied pulled our credit bureaus when approving the policies a few years back, so all my personal data would be available in their system. While there might not have been a security breach with Nationwide, and the identity thief could have obtained these identifiers elsewhere, the circumstances around this opened account are suspect at best.

Doug stated that Nationwide now realizes they had improper controls in place, apparently because I have not been the only person to experience this type of problem with their bank. They have gone to manually approving applications. In addition, he stated that there is only one NSF on the account to date: a check for $9.84. He stated they do not have access to the merchant’s name. 

If you've had a similar problem with Nationwide Bank, I would strongly recommend that you file your own reports. What they did is a serious mistake.

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