Consumer complaint received 2021-08-02
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
I was in the hospital from XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX. During that time, my debit card was used very often, including online purchases, a XXXX XXXX, an {$1800.00} lobster dinner with two bottles of {$500.00} champagne, two packages for tanning, two packages for cryotherapy, a {$3300.00} cosmetic spa ( appointment/ day/ trip ), a XXXX item costing {$1400.00}, absurd lunches and dinners, a yacht cruise where the alcohol maximum was ordered as well as everything that could possibly come with it, a {$400.00} cake ( I called and the man there that day remembers two women or girls coming in to buy it. having sent him the card number from email and commented that he asked where the party was at and one of them replied " at my cousin 's house I get to do whatever and she's going to probably drop dead soon so if you want to come ) and then gave him my address, which when I asked if he would recognize the address if I told it to him, he said, I have it because they emailed me the card number and billing address, which was mine. The total amounts of all the unauthorized charges left me with {$8.00}. I was completely and totally put out with morphine because of the severity and I had gone through h*ll. I saw the texts from Discover the day I was discharged on the XXXX of XXXX, logged into my account and started to panic, scream and cry so I called Discover Bank, explained my situation and I had told them only to report unauthorized if it WAS NOT XXXX XXXX. I went to my local police station and made a report. The officer gave me a card With an incident number in his name but when I asked if I could have the police report he said you'll have to apply for that and it can take up to 45 days so I did and I paid for the report as well. I uploaded a picture of my request to obtain the police report in full because although I was told my medical documents, in which I sent five, would be enough as opposed to waiting 30-45 days, to make it enough to finalize the provisional credits they gave me which added up to {$42000.00}. The officer who took my report went over all my statements by having me email them to him and he printed them all out. He told me to go through all of them and whatever I didn't buy or authorize to mark. I found that mostly all things purchased including {$100.00} worth of gas three different times when I do not drive. He looked at the statements and said there are back pages to all the statements after taking a good look and calculating everything. After he noticed the back pages he said that something wasn't right. There was a week long break in charges of any kind, and that some of them were processed with my card present and even a few ATM withdrawals meaning he she or them had my PIN number, which I guess isn't that hard because it is my anniversary. But, still, it meant the person knew me and asked if I have a caretaker and I said I had one but as soon as I was rolled in a wheelchair to my spouse 's vehicle and I kept getting text after text about the debits, I told her to go have fun and not to worry about me and thanked her. I started calling her and got a generic voicemail every time and left message after message. I decided to call the agency she came from provided to me by XXXX  XXXX and was free for me. They answered the phone eventually and I inquired about her. They said we have many first name matches but no last name. They said maybe she has a married or maiden name. I said thank you, but I knew in my gut that those two scenarios just couldn't be- one because she had facial piercings everywhere ( I am only judging her age by these observations ), she was tattooed from head to toe but especially because of large tattoos on her neck, one on her face and many on her fingers. She was never dressed in " women 's '' attire, but looked like she often wore purposefully ripped clothing and pants with black straps attached. I thought about those things that led me to believe she had not been married nor divorced, but I may be wrong of course. No matter the case, she wouldn't pick up the phone until I finally called and it was shut down or no longer in service. That is why I think it was her since she had opportunity and told the police so. The officer calculated {$16000.00} I had missed in money that was spent from my account. This person had to have had my checks, account number and my PIN at which time the officer explained " cloned cards '' to some degree. I showed him my medical documents stating the date of submission and the date of discharge and that no time during the period had I been discharged. I updated the Discover fraud department, they had already sent me a new card via XXXX that came in two days. Everything was looking a little brighter until XX/XX/XXXX when I began getting text message after text message from Discover ; however, this time they were one by one the reversals of my provisional credits. The entire fraud department had been wonderful to me and always said how badly they felt that someone would take advantage of someone having several surgeries inside a hospital room. They made me feel like it was their pleasure to solve this once and forever and that my medical documents absolutely proved I did not and could not have made those transactions in question. I contacted XXXX, my main point of contact and told her all my credits were reversed and she said, " oh no! Let 's see what's going on here ''. I held on the phone line and she came back on the line and said what they really need is that police report. I called the records department all week long and finally they released it to me about three weeks after applying to obtain it. I immediately called XXXX and while on the phone with me I uploaded to Discover the two page report and she went to get them and put me on hold, then came back on the phone and said she would speak with supervisors about reversing all the reversals of my credits. She told me to call back the next day, which is today and XXXX was not at work, but another fraud representative helped me out, I held the line three times then said he was going to call me back in 10 minutes. I said okay. He called me back and told me it is Discover Bank 's business decision to close my 11 year old Money Market Savings account accruing the entire loss of the charges made unlawfully, giving me no access to my accounts and also closed my online savings. I asked why and how they could do that and he said the supervisors feel it is in the best interest of the bank not to provide me with service anymore from today and therefore does not have to disclose anymore information nor receive phone calls from me at all ever again. These phone calls were al said to have been recorded and I am out {$42000.00} with no justification we to why they would keep my money like that and aren't I FDIC insured and the gentleman on the phone hung up. This is why I am writing this report.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation