Sterling Federal Bank E Lynn Blvd, Sterling

My review of Sterling Federal Bank is not good. On Saturday the 13th of January 2018, I went there with my daughter to help her resolve a problem with her checking account. My daughter was a victim of mail fraud and her account was now negative and she did not have enough money to fix the problem. She felt terrible about losing the money and humiliated for falling for such a scam. I went with her with cash in hand to fix the issue and we would discuss her paying me back later. We sat down with the first bank representative who listened to my daughter and what had happened. The representative said there was nothing the bank could do; she needed to report the incident and pay back the bank. This is the first time I heard what had happened and realized the bank was partially responsible for allowing this fraud to happen. I questioned the bank representative and that went nowhere. We next went to talk to a supervisor, Cindy Rodriguez. Needless to say we heard the same thing from her. I told her that at this time we would not pay anything, until the bank except and paid for the portion they are responsible for. I informed Cindy that we would get a lawyer if necessary. Hearing this she brought in a man from management to listen to our problem. Now this is where I have the biggest problem with Sterling Federal our so called community bank. The man listened to what we had to say. He acknowledges that the bank may have some responsibility, but an investigation needed to happen first. Ok that sounds good, except my daughters account stays frozen. A paycheck had been direct deposited into her account, after the fraud had happened and would not be released. This “community bank” could not release any money until the investigation was over, even though the paycheck was after the event and they were leaving my daughter with nothing. Nothing to pay bills, eat, buy gas, ect. When I explained this to them the answer was “Yes that is correct”. So I cannot recommend Sterling Federal bank to anyone. I would recommend a larger bank who can afford to give back a few hundred dollars while an investigation happens. If you really want a community bank who cares about you, go to Amboy National Bank I have nothing but good experiences with them.