Consumer complaint received 2016-12-21
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: IL
Product: Credit card
Issue: Identity theft / Fraud / Embezzlement

Complaint:
unknown person ( s ) opened a fraudulent credit card using my information with synchrony bank on XXXX XXXX 2016 and purchasing XXXX dollars worth of furniture, after learning of this I contacted synchrony bank on the XXXX of XXXX to make them aware of this and explained that not to allow this purchase to go through which at the time was still not delivered or picked up at warehouse, filed a Police report in my town. I also contacted the XXXX credit reporting agencies and placed a credit alert on my file. After placing the alert unknown Offender ( s ) with the help of synchrony bank opened a second account and attempted to open XXXX more accounts. I then placed a security freeze on my credit on XXXX XXXX 2016. After taking 2 months and 22 phone calls to synchrony bank I was able to get this account which was under mattress firm Account number XXXX closed. Then the task of getting synchrony bank to remove the XXXX fraudulent inquiries on my credit was a bigger nightmare. I have even contacted their fraud department which cant do anything about this. Finally on XXXX XXXX 2016 I received a letter from synchrony bank stating this account was closed and removed from my credit. On XXXX XXXX 2016 I received a credit card statement for the above closed account for the original amount of XXXX that as the fraud specialist XXXX stated " the store pushed the charge through '' this was after 6 weeks of freezing my credit.She also had no explanation of this account since it was closed a month ago and to dismiss it. Then on XXXX XXXX I received another credit card statement again for the same account with the exact amount of XXXX I then called synchrony bank and the " Fraud department specialist supervisor '' could not explain this. As a retired Police Officer the only way that the exact same charge went through after a month that this account was closed, after 3 months from the initial charge and my credit frozen is that whoever " pushed this charge through '' is either the person who stole my identity or working with the offender ( s ) Under your publication summary of rights under the FCRA of victims of identity theft synchrony bank refuses to release THE RIGHT TO OBTAIN DOCUMENTS RELATING TO FRAUDULENT TRANSACTIONS MADE OR ACCOUNTS OPENED USING MY PERSONAL INFORMATION. This is a direct violation of the law and my civil rights. This information is needed to help with the apprehension of the above offender ( s ). I am hoping that this is the avenue to protect me and the civil rights of the law of this land and not allow a supervisor fro synchrony bank make up them as they go along. I have had a total of XXXX accounts that were attempted to open in my name XXXX with synchrony bank and out of those XXXX the only XXXX that were opened were with synchrony bank. With the rise of identity theft it should be up to the companies that open these fraudulent accounts to clean up their mess and not make the VICTIM jump through a hoop to clean it up.

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