Consumer complaint received 2021-07-17
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. (WI)

On XX/XX/2021, we used our Chase credit card at our local XXXX XXXX store to make a purchase of {$110.00}. After that purchase, our credit card was either lost or stolen and it was immediately recovered by someone who used it to make fraudulent purchases at the same location as our last purchase. They went back into the XXXX XXXX store and made three separate purchases totaling {$980.00}. Note that this pattern of making separate purchases perfectly fits the profile of exactly what someone would do with a stolen card to test if it works with a smaller transaction first. After this, they went next door and made another fraudulent purchase at our local grocery store, totaling {$170.00}, and followed this with a {$30.00} purchase at a gas station ( that we've never been to XXXX. In total, the fraudulent purchases came to {$1100.00}. Once we got home, we discovered the credit card was missing, logged into our account, and saw the unauthorized use. Given it was the XXXX XXXX holiday weekend, the Chase call center was closed and we were unable to immediately report the theft, so we used their online feature to lock our account from allowing further purchases. We received multiple emails about blocked purchases during that time. On XX/XX/2021, we were able to call and report the fraud. At that time, we explained the entirety of the issue including that the card was lost/stolen in person and that it was used at our local stores. We also explained that of the purchases made on XX/XX/2021, the last legitimate purchase was the initial XXXX XXXX purchase of {$110.00} made by us. We were not advised by the agent we spoke with at that time to attempt to collect video footage from the incidents to support our dispute. Chase subsequently issued a letter to us on XX/XX/2021 denying our dispute on the grounds that we " received benefit from this transaction ''. Upon calling to appeal this, we were advised the sole basis for this determination was that two of these three locations were in our purchase history and were asked why we did not have video footage collected from the stores, however stores do not release video to civilians and as noted, we were not advised this would be necessary. The card was physically lost/stolen at our local XXXX XXXX which is right next to our local grocery store, so the fraudster was clearly local to us as well which is why those two locations were consistent with our purchase history. We appealed the finding and subsequently on XX/XX/2021 received another letter from Chase that they had concluded their review and once again, denied our dispute. No explanation was provided and there is no offer of " proof '' as to how they concluded we benefited from the transactions. When I called to appeal, I was advised someone doing the review would be contacting me and I wished to speak to them, but I was never contacted besides the issuance of the letters. We had no reason to believe Chase would deny our dispute given that we truly did not make these purchases and we believed they would protect us as they claim they will, so we continued to use our card during this time and pay for our valid purchases, however given their continued denials, we have now ceased use of this card. We have a strong purchase and pay history with the company, consistent income, and have no reason to randomly commit fraud.