Consumer complaint received 2021-04-06
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call from a woman claiming to be from Capital One customer service. She verified all of my info - knew my full name, email address on the account, home address, type of checking account, and that my card had just been cancelled for recent fraudulent activity. The woman even spoofed the number to appear as though it was Capital One XXXX XXXX ). Having known all this information, I assumed she was from Capital One, but obviously she was not. 

While on the phone, she asked me to read her a two-factor authentication code to verify my identity. This is something that Capital One 's real customer service has you do to verify your identity. She was able to use the two-factor authentication code to hack into my account, and send herself {$500.00} using XXXX. Once that happened, she rushed me off the phone, which was obviously suspicious.I recieved an email confirmation from XXXX - a service I had never even used before - for the {$500.00} transaction. It did have the woman 's name and email address ( Name : XXXX XXXX, XXXX : XXXX ) but I have no idea if it's even her real name. There's no way to cancel a XXXX payment, and the company will not work with you to get your money back. They insist you go through your bank. 

I called Capital One 's customer service back immediately after to verify that the woman I spoke with was from customer service, and it turned out she was not. 

Capital One immediately froze my accounts and created a claim. The first agent I spoke with assured me that I would receive a credit in 10 business days. She let me know that she had seen similar issues before, and Capital One credited the accounts. 

I was then transferred to a different department that I was told was going to help me set up new accounts and transfer everything over. Instead, after waiting on hold for 90 minutes, I was told that the bank would be ending their " banking relationship '' with me. Because I gave the woman on the phone the two-factor authentication code, I was then considered a risk to the bank. The customer service agent let me know that I could go to a Capital One branch to withdraw my funds, or wait 7-10 business days to receive a check in the mail. I live in Massachusetts - the closest branch is in XXXX XXXX. I could not travel across multiple states to deal with this, so I had to wait for checks in the mail as the first of the month frenzy of payments loomed over my head. 

I finally received both checks, minus the {$500.00} I lost. I called a few times to check the status of my claim and was not given any information. Today ( XXXX ) I received a letter in the mail ( dated XX/XX/XXXX ) saying that my claim was denied because : " We finished looking into your claim and didn't find an error. '' I called the number listed on the letter asking for documentation of why my claim was denied, and asked to dispute the denied claim. The customer service agent I spoke with told me she would send documentation, and that I would receive it in 3-5 business days, but that she could not re-open my claim.. After I insisted on speaking with a supervisor, or someone who could re-open my claim, I was given a different number and was told to call back in the morning. 

I am absolutely stunned that my claim was denied. This woman knew everything about me. Down to the type of checking account I had. Down to the fact that I had just cancelled my debit card a few days prior to the phone call. I have no idea how she got this information - but it was clear she had everything, including my password, considering all she needed to get into my account was a two-factor authentication code. I checked everywhere online XXXX myself, my phone number, even my old password to see if it was hidden somewhere and I couldn't find anything. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to hide it, but I honestly don't know. 

I'm just extremely suspicious of the entire thing. She had so much information that only someone with previous access to my Capital One account could have had, yet she needed the two-factor authentication from me to log in. So, how did she have all the other information? Was she an off duty Capital One employee? Or is Capital One 's platform really just that easy to hack into? I've never had this problem with another bank, but this was the second time in about 6 months I had seen fraudulent charges on this account. 

It seems weird that a case like this isn't being covered - it's clear fraud. I even XXXX  it after, and there have been major mainstream news articles covering this type of scam. I'm obviously not the first person to fall for this. I feel like an XXXX for all of this, but more XXXX than anything else. 

I don't think it's right that my claim was denied. They should be able to track where the XXXX payment was made from, right? Or see that I have never even used XXXX before, so I've obviously never sent this woman money. I have XXXX, XXXX, all forms of social media - you could easily go through and find out that I don't even know anyone named XXXX XXXX. 

I'm interested to see what the documentation says, because it seems to me like they did not actually investigate at all. 

The platform will not allow me to attach documents for some reason, but I am happy to provide confirmation emails from Capital One about the XXXX payment, a scanned copy of the letter I received in the mail, screenshots of the payment deducted from my old checking account, a screenshot of the incoming call from the above mentioned Capital One number, and anything else you can think of that may help.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation