Consumer complaint received 2020-11-19
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NY
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:
In brief summary, I am a Capital One credit card holder. A very large fraudulent transaction was made using my card or a cloned copy of my card, in XX/XX/2020. I received no transaction alert to my email nor to my phone despite the fact that the transaction was a {$100000.00} purchase at a jewelry store, out of state, and made at a time when I had made no transactions on my Capital One card for several months. This transaction was completely atypical from my card usage and, without a doubt, should have raised red flags at Capital One. Capital One did not flag the transaction, temporarily block the transaction, or reach out to me to verify if it was me trying to make the transaction. 
A full 6 weeks later, I received an email notice of a payment due on my Capital One card, despite that Id not made any transactions on the card for months. Upon seeing the card statement online, I immediately contacted Capital One to report the {$10000.00} charge as fraudulent. The payment due email and my call to Capital One were both on XX/XX/2020, the first day I was aware of the fraudulent charge. It would appear my card was stolen, which I was not aware of. In fact, at the time I reported the {$10000.00} transaction as fraud, I believed the card was still in my possession however I was not even asked about my card. I was asked if I received a fraud notification, and let the representative know that I had received no notification of the transaction to either my phone or email on the date of the transaction or at any time after until receipt of the card statement weeks later. The fraud investigation was launched. I received a letter dated XX/XX/2020 from Capital One informing me that the fraud investigation " is now resolved, '' and confirming that " As part of our {$0.00} fraud liability promise, you were not held responsible for any fraudulent charges. '' The letter will be attached to this complaint. 
However, without notification to me, Capital One then reposted the XXXX transaction. Not only was I not informed of this in any way by Capital One, but I also did not for the second time receive any automatic alert when this large amount was posted to my card. I saw the transaction had been re-posted when I logged in to my card account on XX/XX/2020, to activate the replacement credit card Capital One sent me, which I received that day. I again immediately called to report this as anomalous and clear up the matter. Capital One customer service then stated for the first time that the {$10000.00} transaction is attributed to me, despite that Capital One had already investigated and declared it a fraudulent transaction for which I was not responsible, as I was informed by letter of XX/XX/2020. To my total disbelief, I was curtly told by a Capital One customer service representative that the burden was being shifted to me to provide documentation that I did not make the fraudulent transaction. When I sought an explanation and to speak with someone supervisory, I was told that I was speaking with " the highest level available '' despite the fact that I was speaking to the first level representative reached when I phoned in. 

The reposting of this charge after the fraud investigation was closed and the transaction was found to be fraudulent is entirely inappropriate, and distressing, to say the least. The treatment given me by the Capital One customer service team was highly unprofessional and clearly intended to shut down my ability to address the fraudulent transaction. Capital One needs to direct serious attention to the fact that it is not providing adequate consumer protections against fraud such as this. As noted, this {$10000.00} transaction was not flagged nor blocked as it clearly should have been. The transaction was completely atypical in amount compared to my spending patterns, and it was made at a time when my card had not been used for months. It also was made at an out-of-state retailer, and in a state where I had never made a transaction using my card. One of these facts alone should have been sufficient for Capital One to block the transaction and to seek verification from me before allowing it. 

In addition, I became aware on XX/XX/2020, shortly after contacting Capital One about this fraud, that fraud notifications had at some point been turned off on my card. This is not an action that I took, nor that I was made aware of when the change occurred. After reporting the fraudulent transaction on XX/XX/2020, I received an email from Capital One asking me if I wanted to turn on fraud notifications, which was a surprise since I had not been told during the call with Capital One an hour earlier ( to report this fraud ) that transaction/fraud notifications had been turned off for my card. When I acted to turn the notifications back on, the Capital One system rejected my phone number of record and would not allow me to turn the notifications on. I had to phone Capital One yet again to get technical support just to get the transaction/fraud protection notifications turned back on. This was highly suspicious. Despite getting the notifications re-set by a Capital One representative on XX/XX/2020, I still did not receive any notification when {$10000.00} was posted to my card for a second time in early XXXX, after the fraud investigation had been concluded and confirmation made that the {$10000.00} transaction was fraud. Each of these facts is extremely troubling and indicates a systemic failure at Capital One in the area of customer fraud protection. I do not, as a card member, feel at all protected by Capital One. 

By contrast, I have been an XXXX XXXX customer for 23 years. The fraud protections in place at XXXX XXXX stand in sharp contrast to this failure of protection by Capital One. By way of just one example, I used to live abroad for several years and would not use my U.S. Dollar XXXX XXXX card very often during that time. Every single year, when I returned home to New York for a summer visit with my family, the first time I attempted to use my XXXX card, the transaction would be blocked and handled as potential fraud. I would be contacted by phone immediately by XXXX. I'd have to respond on my phone number of record and to verify my identity and that I was the one making the transaction before the transaction was allowed. These were transactions of {$100.00} or {$200.00} and yet they were flagged and verification was sought. Yet, in the case of Capital One, not having used my Capital One credit card for some 9 months, a {$10000.00} purchase at an out of state jewelry store was allowed to be made to my card with zero flags raised by Capital One, zero intervention to verify the legitimacy of the transaction, and zero notice to me. 

I have fraud alerts set on all of my credit cards. I have, since this incident arose on XX/XX/2020, re-verified that is the case and it is on all of my cards. On XX/XX/2020, a Capital One representative assisted me to re-set my card transaction notifications after theyd been suspiciously turned off. Yet, on XX/XX/2020, I saw in my Capital One phone app that transaction notifications were not enabled for my card account. I have reset them in-app as of XX/XX/2020. Clearly there is something extremely ineffective and inappropriate going on at Capital One with regard to such transaction notifications. I will be reporting this issue to the departments of financial services and divisions of consumer protection in Virginia and in New York, and to the state attorney generals office in both states as well. The failure of consumer protection evidenced by this situation, and the concomitant effects on Capital One card holders like me, can not continue. 

The treatment I've received by Capital One over the past couple of weeks is shocking and extremely troubling. I request your assistance to get this matter into the right hands immediately so that this fraudulent charge is re-removed and I am not under threat of being held responsible for {$10000.00} in charges fraudulently made to my card. 

I have sent Capital One a letter fulling addressing this, attaching a copy of Capital One 's affidavit of unauthorized card use, a copy of their XX/XX/2020 letter from confirming I am not responsible for the fraudulent charge of {$10000.00} made on XX/XX/2020 at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  in XXXX, New Jersey, and a copy of the statement reflecting Capital One 's re-posting of the {$10000.00} charge. I did not make the XX/XX/2020 transaction. I have never shopped at XXXX XXXX. I was not in New Jersey on that date. I did not allow use of my card by anyone else. I did not know my card had been stolen. I was not alerted by Capital One to this enormous transaction. I did not turn off fraud alerts on my Capital One card. I was not protected by Capital One in the face of this highly suspicious and fraudulent transaction. 

I would greatly appreciate your assistance in raising this to Capital One for proper resolution.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation