Consumer complaint received 2024-10-11
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (VA)

After getting the Amazon Visa credit card, I got a bill for {$77.00} dated XX/XX/XXXX which was from fraudulent purchases made by a fraudster who broke into my Amazon account and illegally used my Amazon credit card to make purchases that went to him, while I got the bill. 

Then on XX/XX/XXXX someone initiated a balance transfer for {$210.00} which was also fraudulent. In fact, I have never ever ever done a balance transfer on any credit card ever in my entire life, and that is how I know for sure that this balance transfer was fraudulent. If I have a credit card debt I pay it off and keep my life simpler for it and my credit rating of XXXX would imply as much. 

Then the credit card company tacked on late fees of {$40.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and interest fees of {$5.00} on XX/XX/XXXX there after. 

Once I saw this fraudulent balance transfer and purchases on my amazon credit card account, I called it in and reported the fraudulent transactions. I was told it would be taken off my credit card bill. Yet weeks later it was still on my bill. I would call again, and again, and again and again and each time they said the fraudulent transactions would be taken off and yet it never came off.

None of these fraudulent bills were dropped, nor the late fees and interest fees.

These monthly tack ons of late fees and interest payments kept going on for months until it reached about {$190.00}. At that point the total amount of fraudulent purchases and late fees and interest fees had reached a grand total of {$480.00}. 

And this bill was subsequently transferred from SYNCHRONY to a collection agency XXXX. 

I think it is completely unfair for them to make me pay for fraudulent balance transfers and purchases, and then late fees and interest charges on top of that. 

I have had at least XXXX credit cards over the last 30 years of my life and I have run into only a handful of cases of fraud occurring on my cards. In the past when I caught the fraudulent transactions on my bill, I would call it in and every other time, those bills were cancelled along with my credit card and I was issued a new card with a new number and that was the end of it. 

It is only on this occasion, with this card, and this company, that for some reason they think that if fraud occurs the victim should be required to not only pay for the fraudsters purchases and balance transfers but also be fined late fees and interest charges if it is not paid off promptly. 

If consumers are not protected from credit card fraud then no one can risk having a credit card. 

If you look at my complete credit card history of over 30 years, I have paid all legitimate bills made on any and all credit cards that I own. This is the only claim I am opposing because I didnt make these purchases and I shouldnt be forced to pay for them. 
I feel the plaintiff should be chasing after the fraudsters who committed this fraudulent balance transfer instead of me. It is for this reason that I have to oppose this claim.