January 2023 by Chom C.
An elderly family member of mine have been using Commerce Bank and have been a fraudulent monthly recurring ACH debit come out of her account since 2010. Commerce Bank have been sloppy in their initial response in 2010 when they said it was related to their retirement benefits package. When I found out this year, I spend 4 hours on the phone demanding more information regarding this recurring charge that was not authorized. Once I could prove to them it's a fraud, they told me that I had to call the debiting bank and try to get my money that way. They never returned my request for a call back, their fraud dept number always had a busy tone and finally only after I got the Attorney General involved, did they refunded $36 out of $400 that was taken out of her account over the years. They didn't want to take responsibility for the wrong information which my family member assumed was correct all these years and the reason why she never filed a fraud claim until I got involved. It was extremely difficult and frustrating for me to navigate their back-office support, so it would be impossible for a senior citizen with limited English skills to ask for her money back without my help. Commerce Bank does not do enough to protect senior citizens from fraud, especially fraud that involves technology. My family member did not know that someone can steal from them without physically seeing them, and as simple as knowing their account number and routing number, which is easily assessable because it's on every check. She thought the bank was a safe place to store her money but Commerce Bank proved her wrong. If they didn't have a physical branch, I would think they are a fraud business themselves. $400 may not mean much to their business but it means a lot to a retired senior citizen. They do not value the business we have given them over the past 27 years so we will be taking our business elsewhere.
