Consumer complaint received 2023-03-02
Company: Allied International Credit Corp., (US)
State: NY
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
I had an XXXX account that was semi-dormant, items listed ( they remain listed until sold ) but nothing sold and no reason to login. This was also in 2021 when XXXX changed it's payment policies that any NEW listings required a bank account but I opted not to do that and keep XXXX on the existing listings as I did not want my banking information on their site. 

My XXXX account was hacked and without my knowledge the hacker listed 2 watches for sale. They also attached their own bank account to the account and sold both watches. Then got the payout by XXXX. I only noticed when I received an email communication from XXXX about an upset buyer not receiving their watch. I discovered the fraudulent listings and using XXXX messaging system replied to the buyer telling them it was a fraudulent listing and to dispute the transaction. I also noticed that there was a foreign bank account attached to my account which I could not remove from the account as it required me to replace it with another to do so, which I wasn't about to do. 

I contacted XXXX via live chat twice, finally directed to a different account via phone. I called at least twice, maybe three times being bounced around. Eventually, they said they would take care of it so I left it go. However, at no point in time did they remove this bank account from the account. I told them repeatedly it was not mine and they should get the money back. They said they would take care of it so there was nothing more for me to do at this point and it was in their hands. 

Here 's an excerpt from one of the webchats, " Here 's what I did, I have successfully submitted a request for fee credit adjustment. Please wait 24-48 hrs for processing, after this, you'll receive an email notification for the credit adjustment. '' Then later, not sure how many months later, I started receiving emails from XXXX the transaction fees which are a % of the sold products which was in the thousands of dollars. I was upset because they were supposed to take care of this. Then they suspended the account, no biggy as nothing was really selling/being sold. Then after 2 years since the event they sent it to a collections company. 

Upset, I have once again live chat with XXXX which they couldn't help but was directed again to phone to their Account Services who could. Well after calling them, they couldn't and said they would escalate the issue to a different team. Interestingly enough when talking to them they asked about the STILL attached hackers bank account. The next day I received an email that the problem for which I was contacting was not addressed by them and I needed to talk to Account Services who I had just talked to. Ugh! XXXX has had ample warnings and notifications to take care of this yet contacting them only leads in a circle of emails, live chat, and phone calls with absolutely no ownership. They could have easily canceled the transaction when this was reported and given those folks their money back since XXXX should hold those funds in escrow. Unfortunately XXXX probably also hurt those buyers out of tens of thousands of dollars while letting this hacker get away with it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation