SAN ANTONIO — On Dec. 14 of last year, a scammer found a way to access Becky Heye's computer. She said the thief pretended to represent Norton, an anti-virus software company, and she suddenly had browser windows popping by themselves. Heye closed everything on her computer, but it was too late.
She later found more than $12,000 disappeared from her USAA checking and savings accounts, and was then moved to another account she couldn't access.
“I thought, ‘my God where’d it go? He took all my money,” Heye said.
Heye contacted USAA immediately and the company reviewed her account to look for fraudulent activity. But on Dec. 21, she received a letter stating, "There was no fraudulent activity."
Heye couldn't believe the response and continued to call customer service to try and explain the situation. USAA did additional reviews and did finally agree there was some fraudulent activity by Jan. 11, 2024. Still, the money had yet to be returned and Heye found herself repeating the story with every call.
"It's like talking to someone in another country. Every time I get somebody I have to repeat the story time and time again. One day I spent three hours on the phone with USAA. Another day it was two hours," Heye said.
Heye said in late January, a USAA representative claimed the money would be returned on the next Monday, but it didn't show up. At the same time, she still had utility bills and other monthly expenses that needed to be covered.
Heye didn't know what else to do, She told USAA she was calling KENS 5.
"I said, I'm not getting the answers I need. If I don't get help I'm going to have to call KENS 5. I believe she (the representative) then hung up," Heye said.
Finally, when KENS 5 came out to speak to Heye on Jan. 30, she checked her account one last time. Most of the $12,000 had suddenly returned, though Heye hadn't received a call that day.
KENS 5 then reached out to USAA about the issue and spoke to the company several times. USAA eventually straightened the issue out and returned the remaining money to Heye's account by the end of the week. One USAA spokesman double checked to make sure everything was taken care of.
USAA would not explain the fraud scheme that targeted Heye or comment on the customer experience Heye dealt with during the case. Instead, the company would only approve the following statement:
USAA is committed to protecting its members from fraud and resolving issues when they occur. We investigate each incident so that we can best serve impacted members while also protecting our broader membership from any bad actors.
Heye said she shouldn't have needed to fight with USAA for over a month, and then call KENS 5, before the issue got resolved.
"I've been told (on the phone) there were mistakes made. I worked in finance all my life and people need to be held accountable for that. If they aren't trained right they are going to make mistakes and someone needs to supervise them," Heye said.