Consumer complaint received 2023-04-10
Company: Netspend Corporation
State: NC
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Unexpected or other fees

Complaint:
I initially got scammed back around XX/XX/22 from an online company posing as PayPal. They sent me a fake invoice with PayPal logo on it, stating a charge of {$480.00} from a client named XXXX. The invoice said to dispute the charge to contact the number on the invoice. I did not do any business with anyone named XXXX from PayPal so I immediately contacted the number on the invoice to dispute it with PayPal. The gentleman that answered the phone on the end acted like a PayPal agent even had me log in to some back office that showed paypal 's logo and website address PayPal.com. He told me that he would cancel out the amount that was charged on my PayPal account and reimburse me that amount for the trouble. But I had to provide him my bank account info so he could reset my account. He tricked me into giving him my bank debit card info so he could get the money from my account and credit it back a couple days later, along with the {$480.00}. He cleaned my account of {$4500.00}! He called over the next couple days to check on me and assure me the money would be returned in a day or two, and not to call PayPal or Netspend-if I did it would delay the process of me getting my money credited back. I filed a dispute a couple days later with Netspend. They gave me a provisional credit of {$4500.00} for 90 days while they " investigated ''. They never contacted me once to help with the investigation. Since then the scammer sent me another email identical to the first one, trying to scam me again. Netspend concludes their investigation with no evidence of scam. Yet I'm out of {$4500.00}, and the credit they gave me has been taken back! I understand nobody wants to pay for a scam bit the everyday consumer who puts their money in banks should not be the victim. Netspend reopened the investigation the other day for 10 days. Yet they still did not call me, even though I left a message for them to contact me to help w the investigation. I am very displeased with the result and do not have {$4500.00} to lose. I have bills and living expenses like everybody else. Please return me the money that was taken, and stop these scammers from robbing other innocent people. The conclusion of Netspends investigation is only going to encourage the crooks to keep doing what they're doing! If this is how Metspend does business with people who have been with them for years, I would not recommend anyone use their prepaid services. This is the second time in two years I lost money with Netspend. The first time I lost a government business loan of a XXXX  XXXX dollars just because the check was in my company name and not my personal name. Terrible service if this is how you treat your customers! You have insurance, you have resources, you lend out our money -- why should everyday hard working people have to suffer from scammers? Why aren't your investigations thorough? Why do you blame consumers for scam and not the scammers???

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