Consumer complaint received 2019-03-19
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: OR
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
What is this complaint about : Capital One closed my mileage credit card account because they say someone else called them to say the account was fraudulent. Their initial process was to verify my identity and then open a new account and transfer the mileage earned into that account. They now say they will not do either. 

What kind of problem we are having : Capital One refuses to give us any information on their investigation and has not sent us any letter or documentation regarding the closing of the account. 

What happened : They have closed my account and taken the XXXX miles I have earned. 

Company : Capital One Venture Card Who are the people involved : Capital One fraud department and XXXX & XXXX XXXX. 

Details : I applied for and received a Capital One Venture Mileage Card in XXXX, XXXX. They had a promotion whereby, if you purchased {$5000.00} or more within a 3 month period, you would receive XXXX bonus miles. I was approved and started using the card mid-XXXX. In XXXX I added my wife as an approved card holder. 
We made 3 payments since the account was opened which can be seen with the attached statements : File : XX/XX/XXXX Statement. For the period XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX we made {$1000.00} in payments and XXXX miles. 
File : XX/XX/XXXX Statement. For the period XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX we made {$5200.00} in payments and earned our XXXX bonus miles which gave us a total of XXXX miles. 
File : XX/XX/XXXX Statement. For the period XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX we made {$890.00} in payments and a total of XXXX miles. Since the XXXX statement did not show mileage earned, we have attached a screenshot of our account as of XX/XX/XXXX showing the mileage and the amount owed. File : XXXX Statement Mileage. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I was going to make another payment but could not access our account. There was a message like : there is a problem with this account, try back later. Later that day the website showed th same message so I called customer service and was sent to the fraud department. They explained that someone, claiming to be me, had called and said the account was fraudulent and therefore Capital One closed the account as of XX/XX/XXXX. 

After I explained that I had not requested the account to be closed, Capital One sent an email asking for documentation to prove that I was the owner of the account. Capital One stated that, once verified, they would open up a new account and the miles I had earned would be put in that account and new cards sent. Attached is a screenshot of the email to us. File : XX/XX/XXXX email from Capital One asking for documentation. CASE NUMBER : XXXX. 

Rationale for closing account as stated in this call and the next 4 calls : They had a recording of someone, claiming to be me, saying this was a fraudulent account. They refused to let me hear this recording even after we had proved we were the owner of the account on XX/XX/XXXX. 
They said that this person had enough information about me to get past their screening questions. They mentioned it could be identity theft but could not tell us for sure. 
They said they had to, by law, close the account as fraudulent since I had requested it to be closed. 

Further they stated that : They did not call or email the contact information on the account. When asked why, they stated they believed that everything on the account was fraudulent. In a later call they also stated that they did not need to contact me since I had closed the account. 
They would not say what other investigations they had performed to determine the account was fraudulent. They could not explain why 3 payments would have been made on a fraudulent account. 
A letter would be sent explaining their process, which has not been received to-date. 

I have not received any communication from Capital One to-date. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent in the documentation that was requested to the secure link they gave us : Copy of my social security card front and back Copy of my drivers license front and back Copy of a bank statement showing my address Attached is a file of my letter that I sent in with the documentation. File : Fraud Letter. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called the fraud department to make sure they had gotten the file since I had not gotten confirmation. After checking with fraud management, Capital One said they have the files and that it will take a couple of more days to get our account up and running. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called the fraud department to get a status update since it had been longer than a couple of days. After checking with fraud management, Capital One said that the Fraud Investigation Team just needed to sign-off and said that would be in a couple of days. I asked to talk with them directly and was told that was not allowed but that I could request a call from them. I requested this call and was told the turn-around was 24-48 hours for the call back. I did not receive a call back. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called the fraud department since it had been longer than 48 hours. I was re-directed to another part of the fraud department - to XXXX ( ID # XXXX ). She stated that the account was closed for good, that the miles I earned I would not get back, and that the {$2000.00} currently on the statement would be charged-back to the merchants. She stated that I did not have to pay the outstanding balance. In order to get a new account we would need to re-apply. 

After a heated exchange where she would not transfer me to her manager or give me any information regarding their decision, I requested a call from her manager. She said she would request the call and to expect the call within 24-48 hours. We did not get a call. XXXX then hung up on us after my wife informed her she had been recording the last part of the conversation. Here is the recording : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX In this conversation we also made it clear that all charges on the statement were legitimate charges. 

Also on XX/XX/XXXX after the above conversation, I decided to pay the outstanding balance so that Capital One would not chargeback merchants for legitimate charges I had made. File : Payment. 

Note : I was able to access my account online after XX/XX/XXXX. The card was being declined but I still had access to statements and payment options which seemed odd for a fraudulent account. As I stated earlier, I made a payment to clear the account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from XXXX  stating that Capital One had initiated a fraud alert. They letter was dated XX/XX/XXXX. The letter stated : Re : CAPITAL ONE BANK USE NA, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, UT, XXXX PH : XXXX We want to make you aware that the above company obtained your credit report in what was deemed a fraudulent application. As a result, XXXX has deleted the inquiry from your credit report. 

I called XXXX and placed a fraud alert on our credit report and they were notifying the other 2 reporting companies. 

Resolution : I feel we have been defrauded by the loss of the XXXX miles. It seems clear to me that Capital One is lying about the reasons the account was closed. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, OR XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation