Consumer complaint received 2019-07-15
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: KS
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:
I am writing to report a blatant violation of the Fair Credit Billing Act committed by Discover Financial Services. I didnt have to search for very long in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus complaint database to find an almost identical complaint that Discover provided monetary relief for. It seems to be a pattern with them. 
Not only did they violate the act, but they demonstrated gross incompetence with twisting of facts and truth along the way. They literally failed to do their jobs and tasks they told me they would assist with, then had the nerve to blame me for it. 
First of all, I lost function of my XXXX during a XXXX on my XXXX in XXXX of XXXX. I had to relocate to my hometown to be closer to family. I have since regained some function and ability to live independently, but that has been very recent. I dont share this for sympathy, only that my condition causes many, MANY health problems that the additional stress inflicted by DFS has made into a danger. Its not their responsibility to coddle me for that, but their blunders and incompetence have caused a great deal of stress and I have lost HOURS dealing with this and doing all of their work for them. 
I have been a customer of Discover since XXXX. I was also a customer of theirs in the early XXXX. I have never been in default with them and have an excellent credit history with not only them, but every creditor I have ever done business with. I have spent ten years in banking and am confident I know the FCBA well enough to spot easy violations and completely unethical behavior. In fact, in my opinion, their violation warrants an obvious violation of Federal Law. 
I am attaching letters that I have sent discover and copies of letters they have sent to me. I have spelled out many, many times what happened and Discover refuses to take responsibility that is legally theirs. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from Discover Card stating that my card had reached the maximum limit and asking if I recognized some charges. I called them right away as I did not recognize all of the charges. At first I thought someone had made a copy of my card and was using it locally. Discover immediately closed the account. I reported some of the pending recent transactions as fraudulent, then called back and reported more as I had time to dig in. I dont have the luxury of being in front of a computer all day long and it was not possible for me figure it all out in no time frame. There were some charges that were obviously fraudulent because they were at stores I never shop at. Others were just obvious amounts that I never spend. 
I spoke with many, many people from Discover and their tone changed as the discussions progressed. It was discovered ( by Discover card themselves mind you ) that the charges were being made from an active card. I did not know that cards with chips couldnt be copied. I had ordered a replacement card sometime within the prior few months. I failed to destroy the one I had. As it turns out at some point I lost the new card and inadvertently began using the old one again. This cant be that unique. Over the course of the ordeal Discover card decided that no fraud occurred. They never detailed in writing why or how they discovered that. Most likely because its a lie. I didnt make those charges, never gave anyone access to my card, and never authorized anyone else to do so. Because there were so many charges made, I reported the charges made at stores Ive never shopped at first and then at stores I sometimes shop at, but for amounts greater than what I had spent either recently, or ever. Two of the charges I reported I later asked to remove because they were within amounts that I spend. They were at XXXX XXXX ( the name of this store will be important later ) and XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX. They were actually fraudulent and I was right to suspect them, but they were within amounts I spend PLUS I was initially unsure of the XXXX XXXX  location. As it turns out, it shows up as XXXX XXXX on the statements, but it is says U pump it on the outside XXXX. There are two XXXX XXXX in XXXX and I have shopped at both. Neither are on that street. When I found out the location was in fact not a XXXX XXXX and WAS a u pump it I shop at, I could no longer guarantee it was my charge because Ive never shopped there. 
A lady I spoke to in the first week after this happened told me I would have to sign an affidavit and requested I file a police report. I dont remember the exact date this occurred, but it was sometime before XX/XX/XXXX. She requested that I file a police report and then give them the officers name, agency, and case number. I again agreed. She also said to let them send a list of the fraudulent charges because it would be in a better format for the officer to follow. I spoke with a rep on The morning of the XXXX and he aggressively told me that it was highly unlikely that the thief would shop at the same stores as me. Its not by the way, I live in a small town, not a metro. This Gentleman obviously knows zilch about statistics. The probability a thief and I would shop at the same places increases exponentially as the town size gets smaller and with the number of charges made I called in the following day to report the officers name and case number. He didnt assign a case number because he didnt consider me the victim. He assigned an incident number. He said it would progress to a case number when Discover contacted him as they were the victim. I had no say in whether the police department called it case or incident. I also wrote discover to put this in writing. I never stated that these were all of the fraudulent charges, just the charges I knew werent mine. 
Again, Ill spare too many more details. Discover sent me numerous pieces of mail around the first of XXXX saying they couldnt reach me, even though I immediately retuned every one of their calls. A lady called me on XX/XX/XXXX I believe and said that Discover concluded that no fraud occurred. She was very nice, but I was very upset and was difficult to deal with. She said that discover suspected friendly fraud occurred. Thats not possible as I lived alone and no family member, roommate, or otherwise ever had access to my card. She also asked why I only filed an informational report again, it wasnt my choice. I have no say in how the XXXX XXXX Police Department organized their complaints. I spoke with another rep later who said the incident would be revisited. She did tell me that Discover didnt even contact the police officer until XX/XX/XXXX, and THEN didnt even send him information until the beginning of XXXX. I think the 3rd or 4th. They blew that. Not many stores keep footage that long. I spoke to the officer again on Sunday the XXXX and he said they did contact him about two weeks after I did ( lines up with there XX/XX/XXXX date ) but NEVER sent him charges. 
I received another letter stating that no fraud occurred. Again, no reasons were given. I called and got another incompetent rep that said I didnt safeguard my account. This wasnt true. I lost a card. That doesnt qualify as not safeguarding an account. I didnt authorize anyone to use it and didnt give anyone possession of it. She then said that thieves dont just but a bottle of wine and then return the card. This was also nonsense. She seems to have over looked that there were two cards. No thief stole a card from me and then returned it repeatedly. Thats crazy. 

I called in again later and got a rep with some sense. He asked me what a series of numbers on the back of the card were. I gave them to him. He said that every charge I reported were made from the other active card that was lost. Somehow through Discovers gross incompetence they lost track that there were charges being made from two cards, even though they were the ones that discovered that. I didnt know these cards had sequence numbers and if I did a lot of time would have been saved. EVERY CHARGE I reported was made by the lost card. And of course they were. Im not a thief. There were additional charges that I didnt identify that were, just as I suspected, made at stores I shop at regularly and for amounts within my spending pattern. Thats why I didnt report them. I couldnt do it because I couldnt prove it with a clean conscience. I was right to do so. I never said I had identified every charge. I told at least XXXX rep I thought there were more charges that were fraudulent, but I would eat them because I couldnt be sure. Interestingly, the two charges I had asked them to be removed from the list of fraudulent charges, were in fact made with the stolen card!! I was right about that too! I just couldnt prove it. 
I sent them a letter around XX/XX/XXXX and it is attached. It was dated XX/XX/XXXX, that was a typo. They opened another investigation but again claimed fraud didnt occur. I called AGAIN, on either XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX and spoke with a guy named XXXX. He said it was denied because the thieves shopped at the same stores as me ( they are still stuck on thinking thats unlikely ), there were delays in communicating with the police ( their fault, not mine ), he mentioned MULTIPLE CALLS made ( of course I was freaking out and it was one more thing on my plate I didnt need ), he also claimed I at one time reported a charge as fraudulently that was made on the card in my possession. Totally untrue. If I ever VERBALLY included one it was a slip of the tongue or human error, but I cant see how thats possible because NONE were included on the affidavit. He said there were inconsistencies in my story and its in their notes. Their notes have already proven to be a joke. Some of their reps understood we were talking about two cards, while others couldnt comprehend it. He told me just to agree to disagree. Sorry, I cant do that. Im not responsible for those charges that total over {$1700.00}!!! He also said that the fact I was a longtime customer was not objective. It actually is. It is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that someone with a perfect history with Discover would wake up one day and go on a dollar and grocery store shopping spree. 
I emailed the CEO of Discover on XX/XX/XXXX. I received a call from their executive office 15 minutes before they closed from a lady named either XXXX, or XXXX XXXX. I called them the next day got a lady on the phone that said she wasnt there yet, but that she was just calling to let me know she was investigating. I asked to have her call me anyway. I wanted to talk to her personally. She said OK. I called back about four hours later and got the same scripted response from a male that said she was just calling to let me know she was investigating. I asked to have her call me back. He said he would. She didnt call me until the following Monday which was XX/XX/XXXX. My phone was dead, but she left a message saying she had a courtesy update. I called back and got a lady on the phone who said Ms. XXXX was in a meeting, and there was nothing in the file about why she called me, but that she would be calling me back literally within the hour. I really needed to talk to her because this whole time I had been continuing to speak with the nice officer who originally took my report. They now considered me a victim since Discover washed their hands of it. He said all of the charges were considered separate crimes, so they wrote up paper work for 36 crimes and assigned individual cases numbers for each one.

Im attaching letters Ive sent Discover. They have more details and dates, as well as the letters they sent me that didnt even say how they determined there was no fraud. Probably because its not possible for them to do that. The only thing I can add, or once again point out is that XXXX XXXX is a town of less than 9 square miles. We have XXXX XXXX. We have two XXXX food stores. Every human being and some dogs that reside in XXXX XXXX have been in all three of those stores, and more than likely, regularly. It is not at all unlikely for a thief to shop at those three places regardless of whether or not I do. I was a heavy smoker until recently. I bought cigs and snacks at nearly every convenience store in town depending on what part of town I happened to be in that day. These fit my patterns in other towns I lived in as well. Coincidentally, two of those gas stations were of the very few I DONT SHOP at. There were plenty of places I dont shop at made with the stolen card. I still cant believe they had the audacity to say there were delays in communicating with the police. They were Discovers delays!!

Even if any of these events were unlikely which they arent, it doesnt prove that fraud didnt occur. I reported this to the police promptly. Discover failed to follow up. If I was excited on the phone it doesnt mean I was a dollar store Bandit, Im a human who happened to already be stressed out. It is obvious to me that Discover has never really looked into this. Ive done all the work. Theyre looking for any little way to get out of it and are too stubborn to reverse their illegal failure to absorb the costs of the fraud. They can suspect me all they want. They cant prove anything because I didnt do anything wrong. Perhaps we could have caught the real thief if they would have followed up with the officer in a timely fashion like they said they would. 
Ive worked in banking. Ive seen fraud. Local thieves who use stolen credit cards often make a series of purchases at different stores. Discover is terrible at statistical probabilities. It seems their investigators heard that in a continuing ed, or training class because they all repeat it. Its actually likely in many scenarios. I have a XXXX XXXX in XXXX and took graduate level statistics classes. Im fairly confident I know my stuff when it comes to that. 
Attachments included. The email from the officer with the new case number. The email I sent to Discovers CEO. Letters I sent to discover. Letters they sent me back that failed to state how they determined fraud didnt occur. And so on Im forwarding this complain to every state and federal banking committee and subcommittee, the United States and Kansas Attorney Generals, just so theyre aware of it if nothing else. As well as every other government agency that might take an interest. I cant imagine any human going through the time and effort I have to defraud a federally insured financial institution or incriminate myself with local law enforcement and beyond. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation