Consumer complaint received 2024-06-08
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: Credit Karma (GA)

I unfortunately fell victim to a scam ( scam is to be dealt with separately ). I was trying to acquire a loan and this company said I was approved for a {$5000.00} loan and the process was a little different than traditional loans and I would be responsible for a loan fee / collateral payment which essentially would be me making a payment of {$630.00} upfront as sort of a good faith for the private lender that I could afford the monthly payment amount and the {$5000.00} funds would be released into my checking account via ACH. I filled out and signed the loan documents that were emailed to me and filled out the ACH form for funds to be deposited into and the section to set up automatic monthly payments, if preferred ACH withdrawal or for my debit card to be charged. I elected for debit card to be charged & put information on the form and emailed them back to the forms, I was contacted by the loan officer so we could take care of the fees/collateral payment at this time I gave her my debit card information again, under the impression that the payment would be processed through their company, I was informed that the payment had been submitted via XXXX XXXX to one of their agents in the financial department of their home office in XXXX, XXXX. They also informed me that the transaction was made using my information ( my name and address, etc. which they had from the loan documents ) since it was my debit card being charged. I told her ( loan officer ) that I did not know it was going to be made via XXXX XXXX and that I had only given permission for their company to process my card not XXXX XXXX, nor did I give permission for them to use my information for processing the payment thru a different company, the loan officer gave me some line about by giving them my information and debit card information, I was giving them permission to process the payment and it didnt matter which vendor/merchant it was thru. I expressed my concern regarding it being a scam and using XXXX XXXX without my prior knowledge to an agent in XXXX, XXXX was a hug red flag. She read me some XXXX legal disclaimer regarding payment processing, their scam prevent, etc. and told me again that the home base for their company, where the financial department was located is in XXXX even though their office/branch was located in XXXX, XXXX. The initial payment was not successful and their agent wasnt able to receive the payment since they ( loan company ) entered information incorrectly. The charge of {$630.00} still came out of my Credit Karma Spend Money Account on XX/XX/year> and automatic refund was issued by XXXX XXXX and was in my account XX/XX/year>. I was instructed to contact the loan officer once the refund showed in my account, since I did not have the funds to process another collateral payment of {$630.00} and did not want them to try and process my card again, while waiting for the refund to show up. When I confirmed with her that the refund was in my account on XX/XX/year>, as I again was expressing my concern regarding it being a scam and I was unsure about proceeding because still I had not given permission for my personal information or debit card information to be used elsewhere, they proceeded with processing another payment of {$630.00} and was charged a fee of {$6.00} for a total of {$640.00}, I was very upset with them for proceeding because I had not given permission to continue because I still had so many questions and such an uneasy feeling about it all, the loan officer assured me that it is not a scam, reread the same fake legal disclaimer regarding payments and assured me the {$6.00} fee would be deposited into my account at the same time the {$5000.00} loan was released. She informed me that the payment was successful and was received by their agent with no issues. She then informed me that the {$5000.00} would be released into my account within 3 hours, this still being XX/XX/year>. 3 hours later the {$5000.00} was not in my account, I contacted them, they said sometimes there is a delay and will definitely be in their by the time my bank opened in the morning. The next morning XX/XX/year> came, money still not in my account. I contacted them and told them it was not in there, that I wanted my {$640.00} retuned to my account immediately, that I had not even given them permission to process that payment to begin with and this was most definitely a scam. She again denied the scam accusations and told me she would submit it for a refund and that per the loan documents, the refund process can take up to 30 business days. I continued to contact them via phone & email, about 10 days later, their website was no longer functioning and gives a message regarding bandwidth running out and needing to be renewed, the phone number no longer worked, but emails were still going thru, but they would not reply to any of them, then about a week ago XXXX emails began to be returned. I contacted my bank, who I am filing this complaint about, Credit Karma on XX/XX/year> to dispute the XXXX XXXX Transaction in the amount of {$640.00}. Credit Karma was given all of the information and denied my dispute stating no error found, therefore, no credit would be issued. I contacted them again and gave them the name of the loan company, their website, the phone number I spoke to them on, the names and emails of the 2 loan officers I had spoken to, the names of the agents they said would be receiving the funds along with a copy of the loan documents given to me by this loan company. Even after all of that they still denied my dispute and told me that I am attempting to dispute a transaction thru XXXX XXXX, but that the transaction had been completed successfully and there was no merchant error, therefore, I would not be receiving a credit for the charge. They also made the comment the sole purpose of XXXX XXXX is to transfer money from person to person. I replied to them and told them I was confused as to why no credit would be issued, Im aware that the transaction was completed successfully as the funds were taken out of my account via my debit card but that I did not make. I also told them that while yes, you can transfer money from person to person thru XXXX XXXX, they are also used to purchase money orders and for online bill pay and that I didnt understand the reasoning behind the statement of their sole purpose being to transfer funds from person to person, but that it was incorrect. Below is the information of the loan company, their name, their website, phone number, points of contact, their emails and the names of the two agents the collateral payment was sent to, all though the website and emails no longer work. I tested the phone number just out of curiosity yesterday and it works as far as it will ring, recording answers and will transfer you to the extension you choose, but no matter which extension you choose to goes straight to voicemail whereas before once you chose your extension it would transfer you and ring a few times and someone would answer or voicemail would pick up. Last week the number was not functioning, when you called it would ask you to call the companys main number ( there was not one that I was aware of ) that this number was no longer valid. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, OR XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Agents : XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX back at everything now, I should have recognized this as a scam way before the mention of XXXX XXXX. When they asked for me to pay loan fees & make a collateral payment upfront that shouldve been a dead give away. I am a XXXX mother of XXXX children and was/am in a very tight and tough financial situation and out of desperation did not use my better judgment and common sense from the very beginning, that being said, I do not understand why Credit Karma will not issue the credit for that transaction, especially after all of the information that was provided to them. That {$640.00} being taken and now not being returned has put me in an even worse position financially. I do understand that I was the one that got scammed, but the transaction was not done by me and was done after I told them to not proceed with processing it due to me being uncomfortable with the process and needing additional questions answered. Having it happen anyway and being out that money is discouraging enough, but then to contact your bank for help and with the hopes of getting the money credited back into your account when you were obviously scammed only to be told there was no error found and pretty much brushed off and having to reach out to them several times for any type of update to finally receive one and be denied your hard earned money being returned to your account, when I thought banks had to be federally insured for things like this? Any further information needed please let me know and I will do what I can to retrieve it. I would just like to get the money back into my account and a new debit card sent since that one has obviously been compromised and thankfully from what I can tell there have not been any further attempts to take money from my account, via XXXX XXXX or otherwise.