Consumer complaint received 2022-11-08
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Company closed your account
Company: U.S. BANCORP (CA)

On XX/XX/22 me and my husband received four highly unusual requests for all-inclusive personal identifying information in the mail from " Cardmember Authentication Department '' ( attached ). Two of them were from US Bank, the other two were from Elan Financial requesting excessive and unreasonable PII to be faxed or mailed out to them. I called the number provided in the letter to get information as to why a credit card company is requesting the last 2 years of our federal tax returns among other things. I spoke to 5 different people at different times of the day, today, XX/XX/22, and none of them was able to provide me with reasons behind such thorough inquiry at this time of having the account and alleged discrepancies. None of us have applied for new accounts, we have spotless credit history and standing, we are not aware of any red flags that would allow a credit card company to request 2 years of federal tax returns, 2 months of personal checking account statements, driver license, social security card, IRS 4506-T form , and SSA 89 form. I called both banks directly to find out if they indeed sent out these requests, and they confirmed they did, but again, they kept transferring me to this centralized fraud department called " Consumer Authentication Department '' at XXXX. I did pay and ran a background report on this number, and came up with a spoofing phone # assigned to multiple individuals NOT a valid consumer authentication department. I requested to speak to a supervisor or whoever would be able to explain me the reasons behind such all-inclusive and confidentiality violation request, and after the third call, someone told me they made a note in an unknown department that my accounts were marked as having " synthetic fraud '', of which needless to say, I am not aware of, especially when our credit reports are frozen and no one can access them other than us until the freeze is lifted by us. When I asked one of the supervisors what they tried to gain from my 2 years of federal tax returns, she said, they needed it to verify my identity. I explained to her that my identity is easily verifiable simply using my DL, my SSN, any utility bill, and IRS Tax form 4506-T, why they requested my bank statements and very confidential federal tax returns of the last 2 years? I asked her if they wanted to see my dependents, my deductions, my profit and loss, my children 's social security numbers, she told me, " maybe we do, why not, might as well ''. I stopped at US Bank branch and showed them the letters and asked them the same questions. The representative at the branch told me the account is already closed and there are no notes and she couldn't do anything to provide transparency as to why I am asked such volume of PII to be sent to them either via fax or by mail. She said the letter was highly unusual and she had never seen such a request before. In short, I am unable to get answers from US Bank or this alleged Consumer Authentication Department. Everyone sees notes, no one knows who put the notes and what is this allegation of " synthetic fraud '' based on. From my knowledge and understanding credit card companies are not allowed to request such PII from a consumer who had the account in excellent standing, with XXXX balance, and perfect financial history for many months. US Bank also has our mortgage, our joint checking and savings accounts, and 2 credit cards that they closed without even honoring the 15 days mark in their own letter. If there is any credit card company that is already in full possession of our financial history, it is US Bank. That's another issue, because they mailed the letter on XX/XX/22 and we received the letters on XX/XX/22, which didn't even allow us enough time to respond, if we decided to put our entire financial confidential information on a silver plate and mail it to them risking it getting into the wrong hands. US Bank closed our accounts with no factual basis, no proven facts, no reasons, just some bogus " synthetic fraud '' allegation that no one knows who came up with. They do not even know how this ridiculous inquiry was generated in the first place. And nowhere in the US Bank cardmember agreement states that they are allowed to request such information from a consumer. This is not a new application for account, even if they decide to do such an inquiry, it should be limited to certain PII, not a person 's entire financial life, this is a clear violation of our privacy and violation of 26 U.S. Code 6103 - Confidentiality and disclosure of returns and return information. I wasn't asked for such all-inclusive information even during the purchase of our property. This is unprecedented. I will file a complaint with the CA Attorney General in addition to this complaint. As a consumer, I have the right to know what is in my credit and why am I denied credit.