Consumer complaint received 2025-08-05 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year>, I was approached by XXXX individuals in person who were identifying as a charity raising money for XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I agreed to pay {$5.00} to the cause. They asked for a credit card, and I gave them my XXXX XXXX. They said the card did not work, and then asked for another. I gave them my Discover card, where they said the transaction was successful. At this time, one of the three individuals had my phone in order to " send me my receipt ''. Without my knowledge or consent, the individual, pretending to respond as me, responded to a text from Discover, authorizing a charge for XXXX. They texted back yes, and then deleted the text message chain so I could not see it after my phone was returned. I later found these text messages by contacting XXXX customer care.The " volunteer '' handed me back my phone with a copy of the {$5.00} receipt. When my phone was returned to me, my Discover app was deleted. I quickly redownloaded, and saw that XXXX x {$3000.00} charges were charged, and XXXX x {$3000.00} charge on my XXXX XXXX card. I quickly froze both accounts to prevent the charges going through, and headed directly to a local XXXX branch within the hour. I let one of the employees know exactly what happened, and he was able to open a fraud case on my behalf. I then called Discover while in their office to begin the fraud review with them. I also filed a police report with the XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX that night, and notified the three credit bureaus about the transactions. I was advised to shred both of the credit cards involved as the information was compromised, and was mailed new credit cards for use. I kept my accounts frozen until I was authorized by customer service that the new card activation was safe for me to " unfreeze '' without the charges going through. However, once this occurred, the charges were on my Discover account, even with the dispute actively open. This did not seem to be the right course of action for the situation, as XXXX had removed the charges that were under investigation, and due to the nature of the charges, the usage of my credit ( near my max ) caused my credit score to dramatically decrease. After about a month, I was notified by Discover that because I handed the merchant the card, it was not technically fraud because I approved " a transaction ''. However, it would potentially be considered a dispute since it is not the amount I agreed to. XXXX eventually came to the same conclusion. Now, as the dispute has progressed, the copy of the receipt that I received via text for {$5.00}, which matches the times of the interaction and the police report are not " sufficient evidence '' for the companies. They reached out to the merchant to investigate, and the merchant provided " proof of authorization '', something that was done by one of the criminals involved. I did not consent to these repeated charges, and am not being given information by my providers for how to continue moving the case forward. Discover claimed that they could not use the police report as evidence because it did not fit the criteria for a dispute case. I tried to reach out to the merchant, XXXX XXXX, and I do not have an option to file a dispute directly with them, as they only allow their " merchants '' to file disputes. They are saying the receipt I have is " illegitimate '', which makes sense because I was never charged {$5.00}. However, it proves that that was the agreement that I was a part of, setting the terms for the in-person interaction. I am now looking for a fair resolution to the situation at hand. The XXXX on XXXX scenario put me in a dangerous situation, and had I realized what was going on sooner, there is the chance that I would have put myself in an even more dangerous, and potentially violent situation.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation