Consumer complaint received 2022-09-09
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: MS
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Account sold or transferred to another company

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, at about XXXX, I searched online, hoping to find a cheaper auto insurance and found " XXXX XXXX XXXX Quotes '' ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. After putting in all my information, including social security number and car vin number, it led me to " XXXX * Insurance ''. I was charged {$470.00} for a " policy '' on XXXX, XX/XX/2022. 
At XXXX I received an email letter " Your new XXXX policy '' from " XXXX ''. I tried to open the link to see the details of the " policy '' but failed. It says " We're Sorry Our site is currently experiencing technical difficulties. We apologize for the inconvenience. For assistance, please contact Customer Service at XXXX. Note : Due to maintenance, our site may be unavailable from XXXX XXXX to XXXX XXXX  XXXX Monday through Saturday and XXXXXXXX XXXX. to XXXX XXXX XXXX Sunday. '' I called ( XXXX ) XXXX four times but all the customer service representatives could not find any information related to me. 
Then I noticed in the transaction text message sent by Discover bank that the merchant 's name was " XXXX * Insurance ''. But the real XXXX has no " * " between " XXXX '' and " XXXX ''. I sent an email letter to " XXXX '' but received a reply : " Unfortunately, the email you replied to is an automated notification, which is unable to receive replies. " I also could not find the phone number in my Discover app 's Transaction Details. 
I called Discover bank 6 times, but the fraud department told me that it was not a fraud because I willingly put in my information and authorized the transaction. The billing department told me that the money was in pending and the only thing they can do is to wait for ten days after it is posted and then they might raise a dispute, start an investigation, wait for the merchant to provide paperwork to validate/invalidate the transaction. I told a manager of the billing department : It was not a real merchant. They intentionally created a fake website disguised as XXXX XXXX. They did not sell anything to me, except an email letter with an un-openable link, let alone any auto insurance. I did put my information in their website but it was obviously a scam. As my bank they should stop the loss on my behalf when I reported the scam as soon as possible when I found I was scammed and repeatedly petitioned Discover bank to stop the transaction. She told me they can do nothing about it for now. I need to wait for 10 days to raise a dispute. 
I was cheated by a scammer who intentional created a fake website under the disguise of a real company. The scammer leaves the contact information of the real company. I do not think the cheater would react and provide paperwork to Discover bank. Therefore, I have to report this scam to related authorities in order to save more victims.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation