Consumer complaint received 2023-08-10
Company: Chime Financial Inc
State: MD
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I received 8 plus emails today from Chime.com today, XX/XX/XXXX. I do not have an account with Chime or Chime.com Nor does my spouse -- the emails sent to me used my spouses ' name, not my name. Nor do my teens have an account with Chime.com The emails to my email address all with a chime.com address started with an address to my spouse thanking me for opening an account. 

In the middle of the day I received a notice stating I had sent money to an individual with a name we do not know. ( I had not sent any money to anyone on any account, nor had any one else in my family ). 

A couple hours ago I received an email stating that my account had been switched to a new email address. 

Most of the emails referred me to the chime.com website if I suspected any suspicious activity or I wanted a change. 

To figure out what was taking place, I checked our bank accounts ( which, to repeat, none of which are connected to XXXX ) and I confirmed that no money has left our accounts. 

I looked online to see if there was such a thing as a chime.com and found that there was and found a phone number to call them here at this link https : //www.chime.com/about-us/ I called the following number listed on the above website link - XXXX ( Note - some of the emails sent by chime.com shared the same phone number. ) The call with XXXX from XXXX was very unsatisfactory. After I shared the above information and my email address, XXXX shared that there was an account set up using my email address. She also confirmed that the name on the account was not my name nor was it the name of my spouse or any other family member. She would not share what name was used on the account. 

I asked - " how is it possible for someone to set up an account using my email address without my permission? '' XXXX of Chime.com said she did not know how that was possible. 

I asked to please delete the account using my email address. XXXX of Chime.com said that they could do that and it would take up to 10 business days to stop emails coming from their various departments including their marketing department. 

I asked why it would take up to 10 days - that is a much longer timeframe than any other spam email I have experienced. XXXX was not able to tell me why. 

I asked to speak with someone who could answer the above questions and was told I needed to share the last 4 digits of my social security number and my email address again in order to do so. Given my skepticism of the Chime.com business practices and the emails I had already received I told them I was unwilling to give any more information. 

I received an email shortly after the call saying my account had been switched to a different email address. The email address was similar to my existing email address but also included some portions of a password that has been used by family members. 

I would like : 1. to stop receiving emails from chime or anyone associated with Chime 2. have confidence that Chime or anyone associated with Chime or attempting to defraud Chime can not access any of my accounts 3. to know that if someone calls Chime to lodge a complaint like mine that they will be removed from their list immediately.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation