Consumer complaint received 2022-04-13
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Struggling to pay your bill
Sub-issue: Credit card company won't work with you while you're going through financial hardship

Complaint:
I was contacted by email by a company, which later turned out to be fake, offering me an employment position. I searched for the company under both their LLC in XXXX XXXX XXXX, as well as the XXXX parent company in XXXX. Based on this search, the company seemed legitimate. 

It is worth noting that during the time of this scam, I was unemployed due to the COVID pandemic and had been desperately seeking full-time employment for a period of 24 months. 

After several communications by email and telephone, I was offered the position, which I accepted in early XXXX. Note that the telephone communications were normal job interview-type communications. I was both the recipient and caller of the provided number ( XXXX ). I am aware that many scams use fake phone numbers, but any time I called, the company representative, who called herself XXXX XXXX, answered the phone. 

Also, when I was later given the routing and account numbers to make payments towards my Capital One account, I called XXXX XXXX ( based on the employer-provided routing number ) to confirm that the account was legitimate and that funds were available. 

Once the employment contract was executed, as was given several assignments as per the employment agreement under the probationary period. These assignments were as follows : 1. Purchase the specified items, which were all XXXX computing products, using my personal credit card ( again, as per the probationary period ). 

2. Send a screenshot of the charge from my Capital One app as well as a picture/scan of the receipt. 

3. Transfer the funds from their account, using the provided routing and account numbers from XXXX XXXX  to make a payment against my Capital One card. 

4. Wait until the payment had posted to my Capital One account. 

5. Once the payment was posted to my Capital One credit card, they provided me with a pre-paid XXXX shipping label and associated commercial invoices. 

6. I then packaged the products and brought the package to XXXX with the shipping labels. 

After having completed several such assignments, and only about 5 days later, did I learn that the payments that had been posted to my Capital One account were rejected due to insufficient funds. Again, these payments were being made against my employers XXXX XXXX  account ( their provided routing and account numbers ). 

Of course, as soon as this happened, I became aware of the scam. I ceased all activity and reported this to Capital One. Expectedly at this point, all subsequent attempts to contact this employer by phone or email have been unsuccessful. 

It is VERY important to note that I DID NOT SHIP ANY OF THE ITEMS UNTIL AFTER THE PAYMENTS HAD POSTED TO MY CAPITAL ONE ACCOUNT. 

Upon initially making these payments to my account, they were in Pending status. It was only 24-48 hours later when the payments changed from Pending to Posted did I ship these items. As such, it was my understanding that the change from Pending to Posted indicted that the payments were complete and that the funds had been successfully transferred to my Capital One account. 

It was only later, once these payments were rejected, that I learned that Capital One had not yet actually transferred the funds from XXXX XXXX 
The payments made under this account are as follows : Date Amount XXXX XX/XX/2022 {$8600.00} XXXX XX/XX/2022 {$6300.00} XXXX XX/XX/2022 {$7100.00} It is my assertation that Capital One assumed the risk of posting the payments to my account as complete, despite the fact they -- Capital One -- had not actually received the funds from the payee ( XXXX XXXX  ). Had these payments NOT been posted to my account, I would NOT have shipped the items. But because the payments were posted, I shipped the items since I had been fully reimbursed from them. 

The risk taken on by any credit card company is of unsecured assets. So, whether Capital One refutes the purchases/charges with XXXX and XXXX XXXX versus the payments between XXXX XXXX is of little concern to me. I am stating that I am nonetheless not responsible for these charges. 
I have reported this crime to the following agencies : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( report # XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX related to routing # XXXX, account number XXXX US Federal Trade Commission ( Report number : XXXX ) XXXX  ( the email service they used ) New York State Department of State ( where the company LLC is registered ) I am more than happy to discuss this further or provide any additional details. I may be contacted by phone ( XXXX ), email ( XXXX ), or in writing at the above address. 

At this point, Capital One has refused to assist me with this fraudulent activity. They will assume NO RISK and are forcing me to pay for this scam, all resulting from the fact that Capital One POSTED THE PAYMENTS I HAD MADE. So at this stage, my complaint is against Capital One. 

Thank You and Best Regards, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX The Capital Case Numbers are as follows : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation