Consumer complaint received 2023-05-26
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Government benefit card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer — Charged for a purchase or transfer you did not make with the card
Company: FISERV INC. (CA)

The California state government sent its residents a Middle Class Tax Refund late last year, and some of these cards were sent as prepaid cards. The state government had an agreement with Money Network that the debit cards would include chips to prevent fraud, but Money Network mailed cards without chips over the holidays. I was one of the recipients of these chipless cards, and while I was out of the country for the holidays my card that was preloaded with {$350.00} was stolen and drained at a local XXXX. After returning from my holidays and realizing that my card never arrived, I tried to reach out to Money Network for 1.5 months but couldn't get a hold of their customer service to report fraud, as the wait times would often exceed 1 hour and I would have to return to work. After contacting my state representative and the California Tax Franchise Board, who assisted me with reaching a customer representative, I filed a dispute on XX/XX/2023. Money Network sent me a new debit card and told me the dispute would take 45-90 days to resolve and I would have to call them back after the 45-day mark to learn about the results of the dispute investigation, as they wouldn't inform me themselves. So after XX/XX/XXXX, I began calling them every other week but was told the investigation was ongoing. During this period, I sent Money Network proof that I was not even in the US to receive the card, and since the card activation would require my SSN, they would know that the stolen card was never activated from my call logs. 

After I called them again on XX/XX/2023 I was told the dispute investigation was not resolved in my favor and the transactions were determined as legitimate. They also claimed to have sent me a letter explaining the investigation results, which I never received and I don't think they are telling me the truth. So, I filed an appeal to the dispute investigation results and sent Money Network more documents over e-mail, which show my other credit card activities that place me in another country on the date the fraudulent transactions took place. I asked Money Network to acknowledge the receipt of my documents and my appeal request as well, but never heard back. It still takes around XXXX hour to even reach a customer service representative. 

I also realized after receiving my card replacement that the envelopes with these preloaded debit cards were labeled " YOUR CALIFORNIA MIDDLE CLASS TAX REFUND '' in red, which made these cards even easier targets. And I know I am not the only one whose vulnerable prepaid cards were targeted by fraudsters. Several news articles reported that the number of victims could be tens of thousands ( and according to the XXXX XXXX more than 1 million people never activated their Money Network cards ), but most of these people are already low-income, working difficult jobs, and don't have the time or the energy to stay on customer service line for an hour. So the customer service system of Money Network sets these people up for failure to even file a dispute. Below are a few news articles from reputable newspapers/news channels that covered this widespread problem : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX