Consumer complaint received 2019-12-02
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MA
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/19 a fraudulent charge for {$8.00} appeared on my Capital One Mastercard from a company called XXXX XXXX which I have never used or done any kind of business with at all. I called Capital One on XX/XX/19 and they said they would have the charge removed within five business days, and they did. They also cancelled my account number and issued me a new card with a new account number. 

Exactly one month later on XX/XX/XXXX, the same charge appeared again! I was furious as I could not understand how that could happen since I had never even used the new card for anything. It was still sitting in the envelope it arrived in, there was no way the new account number was " stolen '' by anyone unless Capital One exposed it. 

I called Capital One again on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to XXXX. This time he said it must be a recurring charge and that they would block the company from submitting the charge for a period of 15 months and that they would again remove the {$8.00} from my account. Well, none of those things happened. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called again to see why the charge was still on my account and spoke to XXXX who told me that they have an " arrangement '' with XXXX XXXX in which they update XXXX with new account numbers, meaning they GAVE them my new account number so that they can keep on charging recurring charges forever. After I got irate with her she transferred me to a " specialist '' named XXXX. He said that the only way I could protect my account from fraudulent charges was to close it, and that there was no other way to stop it. This infuriated me further but I reluctantly agreed because I was already tired of dealing with Capital One and wanted the whole thing to go away. He said he closed my account and that the charge should fall off my account within 5 business days.

Well imagine my surprise when 5 business days came and went with the charge still sitting on my account. I again called Capital One on XXXX and spoke with XXXX who promptly transferred me to a woman named XXXX that claimed to be a " specialist ''. She then proceeded to tell me that because my account is closed they do not have to investigate fraudulent charges and that it is up to me to contact the person doing the fraud and somehow make them stop. She further added that even though my account was closed they had every right to continue allowing the charge to be charged every month and that they had every intention of doing exactly that. She was incredibly snide during the entire conversation. 

As far as I'm concerned they purposely lied to get me to voluntarily close my account at which point they immediately washed their hands and said it's all my problem now and they aren't going to ever do anything to stop these charges which I'm sure are going to keep coming forever. 

What I want is the charge removed and the account permanently closed with a XXXX  balance with no ability for anyone to make further charges. I should mention that as of the time I'm writing this, the only amount on the card is that {$8.00} fraudulent charge. I only have a handful of open credit accounts and I had to throw away over $ 1k worth of credit because of Capital One 's lies and their continuing willfully complicit behavior.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief