Consumer complaint received 2016-11-28
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: AZ
Product: Credit card
Issue: Credit card protection / Debt protection

Complaint:
My wife and I share a Discover Credit Card account. We were both at a XXXX, when I began to receive alerts of purchases being made on our Discover Card at stores near our zip code. Many of the stores were merchants and store locations we have never visited. I used my Discover app to " Freeze '' my card and immediately called Discover to report the fraudulent activity. The representative explained they would investigate the purchases, but assured us the activity was now blocked. The Discover App Alerts were instrumental in limited the loss ( well over {$1000.00} in a matter of hours ), but the damage to the merchants and Discover was done. These events occurred a couple of months ago. Just yesterday, I received a letter from Discover stating that the matter was under a probe and if they deemed that we were indeed responsible for the activity, the chargebacks would be reversed and we would be held responsible. Although I understand this is probably " canned '' language, and I have not suffered a personal loss at this point, I 'm taking the time to report a suggestion to the credit card industry as a whole. With the amount of information floating frivolously XXXX, the potential for theft is overwhelmingly on the rise and more difficult to guard against. Our economy is being bled out my amateur and advanced, domestic and foreign hacks. I 'm sure cost/benefit analysis favor ease of use by consumers over risk-mitigation controls, but the truth is, time/speed/rapid response analytics provide the choke point. 

My wife and I also have a XXXX, and the analytic capabilities displayed by this financial institution ( FI ) can be inconvenient, but the risk of loss to both consumer and FI is greatly limited when real-time analytics detect aberrations in activity and block the use of the card. Thieves might get away with the credit, but they most likely will not invest the time to mimic spending patterns used by the actual consumer. More effort may be invested in creating apps with consumer approved patterns of use. A link between a communication device and a card could allow new merchant locations to be added to a list of approved merchants. An app which allows the consumer to select and deselect merchant/retail locations in real-time would be much more cost-effective and provide more protection to the XXXX economy than chasing the culprits after the fact. Stats show people in the XXXX are more concerned with Identity ( credit card ) theft than they are with XXXX, most likely because most of us have been personally affected by this type of crime than the inverse. In fact, this subtle attack on the XXXX economy is like a silent XXXX in its own right ... a destructive XXXX. 

XXXX a high-caliber focus-group/analytic team, and I believe you will find a rise in consumers who are more willing to be inconvenienced with contributing seconds of real-time intelligent data to consumer protection apps. I believe FI which prioritize protection over convenience will see a migration TO and XXXX away from the majority of consumers. I know I must call my XXXX ahead of time if I will be conducting business in an abnormal pattern ( travel or amounts, etc ) before I use the card, but I would happily notify them than having a looming, daunting feeling that even though my wife and I were obviously victims of a crime, we ca n't help but feel accused by the letter we received from Discover. XXXX of the charges is now being charged to us at a store location we have never visited before!!!! ( We are out {$260.00} so far and with potential for more personal loss ). Ughh! We love our Discover card, but I 'd prefer protective analytics more like the XXXX analytics. 

Thanks, XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation