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A COUPLE had $24,000 stolen from their accounts and the bank originally insisted it was their issue for getting hacked, but eventually had to repay them.
Eric and Brenda Nickolas from Patakala, Ohio, noticed the money was gone from their Chase Bank account while visiting Florida in 2023 and immediately were determined to get it back.
However, after a few trips to the bank, they said Chase told them there was nothing that could be done to refund them because it was wired out of their account.
“I was perusing my bank account online, on the phone, and I noticed that approximately $24,000 was missing,” Nickolas told NBC affiliate WCMH in Columbus.
The money was withdrawn through four separate transactions. “$4,300, $7,900, $6,900, and $4,200.”
The Nickolas’ were positive they didn’t remove the money and were left in confusion.
“And I asked my wife, ‘Have you moved money out of our home equity line of credit,” Nickolas said.
“We didn’t move any money around.”
The couple said Chase insisted the refund could not be done because it was due to the wife’s phone being hacked.
They began to get really frustrated and said they would even take a lie detector test to prove they had nothing to do with this.
“We’ve gotten nothing but, ’Well it was through some fault of hers because her phone was hacked’ and we just don’t know how,” Nicolas said.
“We’ll both take a polygraph exam if that’s what it takes to say, ‘We didn’t do this.’”
“Refund what was stolen from our account and we’ll call it a day.
“I don’t want to profit from this, and we certainly didn’t, as they allege.”
The couple began to lose hope but ended up contacting their local news station for advice which is when things finally started to turn around.
“They’re very sympathetic when you’re talking to them, but, pretty much the bottom line is they said once money is wired out, they can’t do anything about it,” Nicolas said.
The new station contacted the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) who then directed them to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The OCC informed them that it “expects the banks it regulates to ensure that any issues that may result in consumer harm are remediated and resolved in a timely manner.”
Nickolas filled out an application with the FDIC and the OCC and they were able to prompt Chase to give them a refund for the missing money.
It took about eight months for everything to process from July to March.
But the couple received a full refund from Chase in the end after taking it to the higher-ups.
“Thanks to you for providing the information about the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller, which we contacted and completed the application process to investigate the Chase matter,” Nickolas told WCMH.
“As a result of the FDIC prompting and inquiry to Chase, we have received restitution from them.”
According to Chase’s website, it has “zero liability protection.”
The zero liability protection is for “unauthorized charges made with your card or account information.”
Chase insists that its customers “won’t be held responsible” for charges that can be proved as fraud.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Chase for comment.
