Consumer complaint received 2020-02-05
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
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: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2019, my Capital One Visa card showed an electronic payment of {$4400.00} was made to my account. At the time, I was under the belief that a company that I was working for called XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX ( website is XXXX ) was supplying me funds to buy XXXX Products to send to United States addresses. I was in constant contact with this company and was advised exactly how much funds would be on my account and that it took about a week to clear and would see it on the card when available. So when I saw that the transaction went through via Capital One, I had no doubts not to still trust that this was a legitimate company. I bought the 2 products that I was instructed to do ( I have XXXX records of where they were sent ) and was actually given a bonus through my XXXX account for getting it completed in a timely manner. ( I have the XXXX account where it was sent from ). On the Capital One site it showed the deductions of the funds to cover the purchases was being subtracted from the initial funds and did not think anything was wrong. XXXX XXXX, informed me they would send over another electronic payment when they needed me to make another purchase. A few weeks went by, and onXX/XX/2019, another electronic payment was made to Capital One and showed in my account as a {$4900.00} credit on my account. The next day, I bought 2 more XXXX products and shipped them to the instructed address. That same day, XXXX at about XXXX, I got a call from Capital One. They told me I needed to show Bank Account information from where the money was coming from and until then my account was going to be put on hold. I told them that my employer was paying the bill and I would get the needed information and get back to them. I immediately called my contact at XXXX XXXX, a man named XXXX, they assured me that happens often and I would get the needed papers by next week, but since it was right before XXXX, it may take till the end of the week. I was still in contact with XXXX  that entire next week, and then about XXXX on XXXX XXXX I tried again to reach them to tell them I need to clear this up with Capital One, I no longer had access to the companys web portal where I had been doing most of my communications through and no one was returning my calls or emails. That is when I started to feel very uncertain about the situation. On XXXX XXXX about XXXX, after days trying to reach someone at XXXX, I called Capital One. I spoke to them and said I didnt understand how they would allow me to have a surplus on my credit card if the electronic payment had not gone through properly and why would it have taken 18 days to know that it was not cleared. Then I said I believe I have been a victim of fraud. I was on the phone with them for over an hour and told them I would call back once I had more information. I then spoke to my attorney friend and my brother in law who is a former Secret Service agent, and he definitely thought this was a scam. My brother in law said I need to write out a detailed timeline of the entire ordeal ( which I have with evidence ) and file a police report. I filed a police report with the city I live in XXXX County Florida, one on the Federal Trade Commision site, and also on the Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center. I called Capital One again on XX/XX/XXXX, first time at XXXX. I spoke with someone from the Fraud department named XXXX. She tried to explain that Capital One didnt know the funds were not coming through properly via the electronic payment that occurred on XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX. But Capital One allowed another electronic payment from XXXX XXXX became available on my Capital One credit card on XX/XX/XXXX. It was not until, XX/XX/2019 at XXXX was the first time they were notifying me that the funds were not there and I needed to supply documentation. My husband was on the phone with me, and we questioned the fraud specialist why it would take 18 full days to see that the funds did not go through. If I had been informed by Capital One much much sooner, I would have STOPPED this and NEVER moved forward with another payment supposedly going through and NEVER would have bought anymore products for my job. The agent, XXXX, also thought that was an excessive amount of time for a payment to be cleared and she put us on a hold so she could look into some other things - as she said. I was on hold for at least 20 min before the call just hung up on me. I instantly called back Capital One, spoke to a Fraud Specialist named XXXX, she was unable to let us know what the parameters Capital One has to notify a customer when funds do not go through correctly. She was short with myself and husband who was on the call, and then we asked to speak to a supervisor. Fraud Specialist Supervisor XXXX, got on the line with us and we once again I told the entire story and she also did not say or know if there is a timeframe when Capital One notifies a customer that an electronic payment ended up being false, and that I will be responsible for the balance and any interest it may occur. I believe Capital One was as much a victim of Internet Fraud as I was, possibly more so since they are the ones who released funds to my account without having clarification if it was truly a real electronic payment. Like I have stated, I would have NEVER made any purchases prior to seeing that there was an electronic payment that gave me that surplus of funds on the credit card to begin with on the card. Capital One has a flawed system and they need to see that it needs to be fixed before this continues to happen to others.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation