Consumer complaint received 2019-03-21
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: IL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
Barclays issued me a credit card with a {$12000.00} limit. On XX/XX/18, within a few months of receiving the card I was at a bar/ nightclub in XXXX . I authorized and signed for a charge of approximately {$100.00} USD. The merchant refused to provide me with a receipt claiming the printer on the machine was broken. Upon leaving the establishment, I discovered the merchant had charged my card 10 times for {$9700.00}, essentially maxing out the account. Note - they had also attempted to run the same unauthorized charges on my XXXX and XXXX credit cards, all of which were declined by their respective fraud departments. 

After spending countless hours on the phone with Barclays and receiving conflicting info with almost every call, it was determined that these charges weren't fraud since I was present at the merchant. Since the first rep I spoke with submitted them as fraud, we had to wait 30 days until that process was complete to resubmit the claims as disputes. For some unknown reason, Barclay 's then submitted dispute claims for only 6 of the 10 charges totaling {$6200.00}. The merchant didn't respond within the 45 day period so the temporary credits became permanent, which was the desired outcome. BUT, when Barclays submitted the final 3 claims ( note 1 claim for {$1.00} was disregarded and written off ) for {$3500.00}, the merchant responded providing receipts with forged signatures and invoices for items that aren't even on their menu. As such, Barclays sided with the merchant on the final 3 claims stating that they provided receipts with my signature, Barclays can't make a determination that they were forged, and I would need to handle outside the bank. The signatures look absolutely nothing like mine, and in fact, don't even look like one another. It looks like 3 completely different signatures.

If you look at all of the evidence, this is one of the most blatant and egregious cases of credit card fraud ( unauthorized use ) and forgery ever. After doing some research on this merchant, I learned that they are notorious for scams and credit card fraud. There are over 50 XXXX reviews all noting similar experiences. They submitted forged receipts, manipulated surveillance footage, and a ridiculous list of items that I had allegedly purchased. Example : 2 entry tickets for approx. {$800.00} each, 17 glasses of champagne for approx {$30.00} each, etc ... Note this doesn't account for the other {$6200.00} that I allegedly spent that night for which they didn't provide receipts.

Ultimately, this merchant took my card, indicated they were running a small amount ( around {$100.00} ), maxed it out with 10 separate charges for close to {$10000.00}, refused to provide a receipt, and submitted fraudulent documentation attempting to prove otherwise. They need to be shut down and flagged by all payment vendors as fraudulent. 

My biggest complaint against Barclays at this point is the fact that the bank, a supposed fiscally responsible financial institution, extended me credit and allowed a merchant in a foreign country to max out my card in such and egregious manor without so much as a fraud alert ( alerts WERE activated on my account ) or required second form of authorization. I wouldn't be in this position if Barclays had provided adequate fraud prevention in the first place. I feel this is an epic failure in terms of consumer protection by what I thought to be a reputable financial institution. 

I have no recourse other than the merchant dispute and charge-back process. Please help me in recovering these charges. 

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation