Consumer complaint received 2019-03-16
Product: Credit card or prepaid 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: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (MD)

I just tried to report a fraudulent charge on my Chase/XXXX XXXX VISA card, but was prevented from doing so by a representative I was transferred to after I called the toll free number on the back of the card, XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. Along the way, the person asked me questions about someone besides the account holder and about an address that was not on the account. 

Second, for years, Chase has bullied and harassed me to provide it with an email address. In the past, I witnessed a bank officer enter an email address without my consent and over my objections into Chases database while claiming that he was required to do so. I should not be required to give Chase an email address in order to receive financial services from it, nor should Chase be allowed to obtain, store or use email addresses I have not authorized it to have or use in any way. Chase needs to be sanctioned for demanding email addresses as a condition of providing services on several accounts I have with it, including the XXXX XXXX VISA account. It should be sanctioned for obtaining, storing and using any email address I do not explicitly provide to it and authorize it to use. I am not the least bit interested in receiving advertising junk email from Chase or in increasing my chances of identity theft because of Chases self-serving over-reach in what it demands, then claims without authorization as though it is entitled to ask, obtain, store or use without my authorization and in spite of vehement objections from me expressed in person, on the phone and in writing numerous times to it. 

When I tried to report the fraudulent charge today, Chase resisted and ultimately would not credit my account for it. I was asked repeatedly for things like my name and my address. Chase should not be allowed to waste my time by asking the same question over and over again. It also wasted my time by asking vacuous questions such as was it okay if the representative asked me one question or another, after he had told me that he needed to ask me the questions in order to service the account. The CFPB should prohibit Chase from asking irrelevant questions in persistent acts of subterfuge when I call to report a fraudulent charge and wasting my time by asking irrelevant questions that have no bearing on its behavior, and by asking the same question over and over again. 

As we spoke, the representative attempted to interrogate me about someone who is not on the account, and attempted to extract the information from me in a deceptive manner. The representative first indicated that I had an affiliation with someone who was not on the account, at which point I told him I am the only person on the account. The representatives questions were so suspicious that the CFPB should check a number of Chase credit card accounts to see if it itself planted phony charges on its credit cards as a pretext for harvesting information it is not otherwise entitled to ask, obtain, use or store. Undeterred, the representative then asked me for the birth date of the person who is not on the account. This despicable effort to extract information that is irrelevant to the account should be sanctioned by the CFPB. Any question that Chase asks me should be limited by significant CFPB sanctions to questions about the card or the account holder alone. The CFPB should thoroughly investigate what incentives or punishments its representatives receive for trying to or failing to extract information from an account holder about a third party who is not on the account in question. A similar drill occurred with an address that is not on this credit card. I was asked how long I lived at an address other than the address of record for this card. I suspect that Chase will now try to change the address of record for this account because of the half-truths that it concocted through illicit means today. 

If Chase tried to obtain the information about a third party or an irrelevant address who or which is not on the account because it is responsible for reporting a false birth date or false address for me to credit agencies, it should be heavily fined and sanctioned even more, first for reporting irrelevant and inaccurate information to credit agencies for my credit report, and, second, for the scumbag tactics it employs to remedy it. 

After wasting my time, bullying me for email addresses, asking phony questions it claimed were for security, but, in fact, were not, I told the representative to report the fraudulent charge, but it is not clear that he did. I also told him that I would be reviewing my statements for this account to see if there were other fraudulent charges in addition to one from XX/XX/2019 for {$200.00} for XXXX XXXX XXXX that appeared today as a pending charge for the card on online banking. 

Please force Chase to credit my account for this amount immediately and to respond responsibly if I call to report other fraudulent charges after I review my account in the next few weeks. 

Please sanction it effectively for the things Ive complained about so that consumers are not forced to habitually police non-compliant financial service providers like Chase. I should be able to receive reasonable service for things like credit cards that are a necessary part of modern living. Credit cards and banking services should be regulated as public utilities and not left to the whack a mole games of avoiding regulations and laws because there is no real cost to skirting and not complying with them, as too often is the case now.