Consumer complaint received 2021-04-22
Company: Chime Financial Inc
State: GA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Opening an account
Sub-issue: Account opened as a result of fraud

Complaint:
I received an email from Chime at " XXXX '' on XX/XX/2021 stating " Your Chime Visa Debit Card has been shipped to you. A bright green envelope should arrive in about a week. '' followed by a physical mailing address I have never been associatedwith. Tried to call Chime 's customer service at XXXX but could not get a live person. I then sent an email to their support stating that this is a fraudulentaccount and I never authorized opening it. Went through 2 or 3 form letters from the support team asking if I'm sure I never had a Chime account. Had to tell them multiple times that I have never heard of Chime before. The support team then replied that I will need to send a picture of my government ID and SSN card for them to close the account. This is absurd and unsafe for multiple reasons, a ) email not being a secure enough platform for this kind of communication, b ) I have not initiated a relationship with this banking institution and the onus is on them to make sure their accounts are valid, and c ) they clearlydid not take this deal of care or require this identityproof when they let a scammer open a fraudulent account with my information. I have asked to be connected with their fraud dept repeatedly but they refused to do so. At this point, on XX/XX/XXXX, they said they " blocked the account which will prevent the account from being accessed by an unauthorized party in the future. '' I asked for the account to be closed, again, as any user is " unauthorized '' since I never opened this account. I followed up on XX/XX/2021 and XX/XX/2021 but have not received an answer. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I received an email saying that the email address on my Chime account has been changed. I then received a text stating the same. I then again contacted the support, stating this is a fraudulent account and needs to be closed. Again, I went through 2-3 form letters asking if I ever had a Chime account. Then again, they asked for me to " verify my identity '' with a picture of my ID and SSN card and told they can not assist me if I don't send those documents. 
On XX/XX/2021 I was able to call their main line and actually get through to a live person. After repeating the same information, his " solution '' was for me to contact support via email, although I told him many many times I have done that already to no avail. He did not offer any other resolution. I explicitly told him there is a physical debit card going to an address that I have no association with, to which he said " well they'll need to deposit funds into it to use it. '' The irony that I had to explain data integrity to a representative of a banking institutionis not lost on me. 
At this point, there is a fraudulent account that Chime refused to close under my name. There is also a debit card that was sent to an address I have never resided in. Their stance remains that I have to provide them with copies of my ID and SSN card because " thisis done to prevent unauthorized third parties from being able to close legitimate members accounts '' although they did not do their due diligence in preventing an unauthorized party from opening an account under my name.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation