Consumer complaint received 2021-01-11
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: TX
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:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an e-mail from Barclay Card that there was an attempted fraudulent transaction on my card. I logged into my online Barclay Card account, which revealed an attempted fraudulent purchase of over {$3300.00} at XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. Fortunately, this fraudulent transaction was prevented. However, there were 3 other fraudulent charges that posted from the same day : {$2.00} at XXXX XXXX ; {$27.00} at XXXX-XXXX  and another {$240.00} charge at XXXX-XXXX. None of these purchases were made by me. Barclay Card claims that the purchases were all made with the chip on my card, which is impossible because I have had my card the entire time. It seems rather obvious that the fraudulent criminals somehow obtained my credit card number and first did a small transaction to see if it would work followed by ever-increasing charges. I filed a police report, which I provided to Barclay Card. 

Nevertheless, Barclay Card has called me a fraud and insisted the charges are legitimate. Despite repeated requests, Barclay Card has refused to provide me any information about these charges. To wit, Barclay Card has refused to tell me where these charges and attempted charges were made. They refused to provide their evidence that the chip was actually used. They have failed to provide evidence that a chip can't be replicated. They have failed to provide any receipts showing signatures or fingerprints on the receipts.. They have no security footage showing who made the charges. Barclay Card never sought to obtain any of this information. Instead, they outrageously told me on the initial call I made to report these fraudulent posted transactions that the charges were legitimate and I can do my OWN investigation like pulling security footage from these stores when I don't even know their addresses or the time of the charge. 

Barclay did no investigation, other than to insist the charges were legitimate because the charges were allegedly made with the chip. They have failed to explain how their own fraud alert from the same day factors into their analysis. I have been a Barclay customer for 8+ years. I have NEVER disputed a charge as fraudulent with Barclay. My Barclay card is a travel/restaurant card. I spent tens of thousands of dollars with Barclay in the past year and exactly none of it was at retail stores. I have other cards I use for those type of purchases. I have a credit score over 800. I am an attorney who defends large corporations in deceptive and unfair trade practices disputes. Luckily, all of the lawsuits and claims I have defended have been frivolous. However, Barclay is clearly acting in bad faith and committing deceptive and unfair trade practices. 

As noted above, Barclay insisted in my initial call with them that the charges were legitimate because the chip was used. XXXX XXXX in the Barclay Office of the President issued a letter in bad faith where she claimed the charges were also legitimate because my card was never lost and I admittedly made legitimate restaurant charges after the fraudulent charges. If XXXX XXXX were being objective instead of a Barclay shill she would have realized that the legitimate restaurant charges posted after the fraudulent charges instead exemplify that Barclay 's findings that the chip was used and/or a chip can't be replicated are wrong. She would have further noted that Barclay 's longtime customer was being honest in saying the card was still in my possession rather than lost. She would have factored in Barclay 's own fraud alert from the same day as the posted fraudulent charges. She would have realized that an attorney in good standing with several state and federal bars is not going to waste his time trying to defraud a credit card over {$270.00} and file a false police report, which is a crime that would endanger my professional livelihood. 

I am shocked that Barclay Card has opted to behave in this manner. It speaks to their unfair and deceptive trade practices across the board, not just in regard to these charges.

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