Consumer complaint received 2023-04-18
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Government benefit card
Issue: Unexpected or other fees — 
Company: KEYCORP (NY)

I am writing because Key Bank Servicing Center wrongly denied my fraud claim in part and refuses to issue a credit to me even though they have indicated that they believe there was fraud. The reason they informed me that they will not reimburse me for certain fraudulent transactions was because they can not identify the vendor and do not have a way to recover the funds. Exactly, because it was fraud. 

I would like to first inform you that I authorize anyone to XXXX XXXX, XXXX, about this matter as I am in college and not able to discuss this matter at times. We both can be reached at XXXX. 

I was issued a debit card with Key Bank sometime in XXXX for unemployment funds. When I first was issued the card I was able to go to Key Bank and withdraw monies. However, I left much of the funds in the bank and was planning to use it for a down payment in a car. The last time I used my card was in XXXX of XXXX for a repair on my old car. The card was in my possession at all times. On or about XX/XX/XXXX I first noticed there had been fraud on my account which reduced my balance to approximately {$20.00}, instead of the approximately {$3200.00} I should have had on the card. 

Initially, I went to my local Key Bank branch to report the fraud, and to my surprise, they were not authorized and could not see my account activity. I then made several calls to the customer service department and the dispute department on XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX reporting the fraud and requesting that a fraud dispute be made. Each time I made a call, I was placed on hold for over one hour and then told that either customer service or dispute department hours were over, they were closed, and I had to call back the next day. Eventually, after much time wasted and XXXX  about the fraudulent transactions, I was able to file the dispute. I can prove this with my phone records. 

As I indicated, I had been saving the money on the card for over two years to use as a down payment for a used car I was going to purchase. When I went to purchase the car on XX/XX/XXXX, there was only approximately {$20.00} in the account instead of the approximately {$3200.00} that should have been available. I had not used the card in almost two years, except for payment to repair my old car in XXXX of XXXX. The card was safely placed in my dresser drawer and never once left there until I wanted to use it in XXXX of XXXX to purchase the used car. Instead, I had to borrow money to purchase the car at a high interest rate. 

I received a multitude of letters from Key Bank Cardholder Services, in relation to the disputed transactions, dating from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. Some of the transactions were reversed and I received a credit in the amount of approximately {$1800.00} and some were denied in the amount of approximately {$1300.00}. Each denial letter I received stated you have the right to request the documentation we relied on in making our decision to deny your claim. Please contact our Customer Service Department at the above number to request the documentation or with any questions related to this matter. 

Well, that is exactly what I did over a five-week period beginning first week of XX/XX/XXXX. Each time I called, and I made several calls a week, I was told the same thing by Customer Service, We have no way to see the dispute and do not know what you are talking about when you say that the letter says you should contact customer service for the documentation that was relied upon to deny your dispute. We have no documentation, you must speak to dispute department. Each time I called customer service, it again took over one hour to reach someone, only to be told to call disputes. When I called the dispute department, I was again put on hold for more than an hour and told We do not have any documentation regarding what we relied on to deny your dispute. Once a claim is denied, it is denied, there is no way to appeal it, contact customer service, we do not know what you are talking about. This back and forth went on for these five weeks. On three or four occasions, a request for a Team Lead was put in to escalate my inquiry and resolve the issue of the documentation used to deny my disputes. I was only contacted twice and each time the Team Lead sent an escalated email to the dispute department requesting they investigate my inquiry. No one ever called me from the dispute department. As you can imagine, I was super frustrated at this point and the fact that it took over an hour each time I called to reach someone was totally unfair. 

Finally, in the beginning of XX/XX/XXXX, after again calling customer service and again being referred to a supervisor, I received some useful information. I was told to write a letter and my dispute would be reopened. I also learned that the Attorney General could be helpful since the money on the card was government issued funds. I filed a claim with the Attorney General but they referred it somewhere else and no one has contacted me. 

As I have said, my goal is to have the disputed fraudulent transaction which were denied for reimbursement be credited to my account as there was clear fraud for the reasons I will state below. I will be uploading the denial letters and my letter to Key Bank with this submission. 

If you look at the denial letters, most of the disputed transactions which I was denied credit for were XXXX related and used names related to established vendors, but were spelled incorrectly, which is a common way that fraud occurs. For example, on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, charges for {$35.00} and {$12.00} were authorized and the vendor was XXXX * XXXX, instead of XXXX. Other common misspellings of these transactions include, XXXX, XXXX XXXX ( what is that? ), *XXXX XXXX*XXXX XXXX again? ), *XXXX (? ), *XXXX XXXX (? ), *XXXX  (? ), *XXXX, XXXX (? ), and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX (? ). What do some of the names even mean? It is obvious that fraud occurred because there are so many vendor names that are not even recognizable and misspelling and * is used as a common way to not be detected as a fraudulent transaction. I have attached the denial letter for over sixteen transactions in which my disputes were denied. Many of them were from XXXX of XXXX and many of them use * in the name of the vendor which as I mentioned above, is a way to conceal the fraud because the vendor names are recognizable and no one pays attention to the name deviations. Therefore, it is impossible for there to be documentation relating to the transactions which was relied on by Key Bank in denying my disputes because they are clear fraud. 

I tried to tell the dispute department this, but no one wanted to listen, and they told me basically too bad. After a multitude of hours being spent trying to explain this to Key Bank, writing a letter to have my claim reopened as they indicated, I was told today, XX/XX/XXXX, by a supervisor, that they can not reimburse me for the disputed transactions because they have no way of charging back the funds. 

I would also like to point out that I sent the letter to re-open my dispute 2 times, because after my first submission on XX/XX/XXXX, I called to follow up and they never received it ( there is a fax confirmation they did ). Then, I called after I submitted the letter again on XX/XX/XXXX, and was told they had 30 days to look into it. No one ever called me or wrote to me in response to my letter. I had to call after the 30 days and was told by dispute department that my claim was reopened and then closed again but they could not tell me when and just repeated the original denial reasoning ( I waited too long to dispute transactions, they could not verify them, I never checked the balance ). I asked for a dispute supervisor to call me back and they did not. My last call was today, XX/XX/XXXX, and I was told by a supervisor that hey are standing by their denial of almost {$1300.00} of my funds because they have no way of charging back to the funds to Key Bank. Again, this is because of fraud while my money was in their care. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to hearing from you and resolving this issue without further delay.