Consumer complaint received 2016-05-13
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: CA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
I have recently been the victim of a series of fraudulent charges, all in relatively small amounts between $ XXXX-XXXX, over the course of the months from XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX. I became aware of these charges on XX/XX/XXXX, after the criminals had slowly drained my business account of over {$6000.00}. 

When I finally realized what had been happening, I reported it immediately to my financial institution, Chase, at my local branch in XXXX XXXX, CA on XXXX XXXX. They could see quite clearly that the charges were fraudulent and expected the funds to be returned in a couple days. 

On XXXX XXXX, I received an email that {$3900.00} would be transferred into my account ( already far short of the approximately {$6500.00} due ). Later that day I received notice that my claim was denied. I have escalated this to the extent of my ability and have received nothing positive whatsoever. Chase is telling me directly that their refusal to refund is my responsibility, as I should 've reported far earlier - this of course, dependent on knowing what happened, and I did n't. 

A bit more explanation : The charges were all from a XXXX station in XXXX, CA - a place I 've never been. I do, however, buy gas, etc ... at XXXX in XXXX XXXX, so if I see " XXXX - {$65.00} '' on a statement, I do n't think anything of it. Simply not an odd charge. 

Chase has informed me that my claim is invalid because the original charges were more than 35 days prior to me reporting them, which they claim is backed up by federal regulations that were in effect 9 years ago when I opened the account, something I doubt very much. 

They also claim that because I accessed my account online via the QuickPay app on my phone, that I must have NECESSARILY seen these charges and just neglected to report them, something that defies all reason. I use that app to quickly pay my rent and my doctor. 

Chase fully encourages the use of mobile banking, making it exceedingly easy to miss individual charges like I did. Chase also encourages electronic statements available online. I do n't receive my statement in the mail, nor do I receive it in email. An email that states it 's " available to view '' is n't the same as having the text in your face. 

Yet they are adamant that even though they 've found multiple ways to discourage their customers from actually tracking their transactions, it 's still the customer 's fault to do so - in the course of our conversations they 've even said that fraud must be reported in 24 hours in some cases. Who lives their lives like this? 

As it stands now, they are telling me they ca n't return a huge amount of money ( to me ) because of when the undeniably fraudulent activity began longer than 35 days prior to my reporting, and they imply that I was somehow complicit in it by 'knowing ' and not reporting it. They also tell me that even the charges within the 35 days prior to my reporting are denied. 

All of this is premised on the idea that the funds are unrecoverable. That is clearly contradictory.. If they have 35 days, they could 've recovered at least those funds. They chose not to act at all for 31 days. Also, since all of the fraud was of the same variety and from the same source, if they 're able to track and recover the most recent charges, they certainly should be well within legal reasoning to recover the rest. Instead they 're completely obstinate in the face of a customer complaint. 

I 've been a Chase business customer for 9 years. I 've had them alert me of fraudulent charges in the past, and I 've also noticed some myself and have had to report them. They 've left my account exposed repeatedly. 

Their ONLY job is to protect my money and provide the services I need. They 've done neither, and in turn they 've blamed it on me. 

They also refuse to accept any holes in their fraud detection system.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation