Consumer complaint received 2024-01-09 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: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MO

Complaint narrative:
CAPITAL ONE IS REFUSING TO PROTECT US FROM A FRAUDULENT CHARGE OF {$1200.00}. Here is a brief version of what is written in more detail below. We were the victims of a fraudulent company that NEVER PERFORMED THE SERVICE THAT WE PAID FOR! We paid {$1200.00} via a Capital One credit card in order to have two trademarks registered for our newly formed company. That company never filed an application for our trademarks. In addition, they sent us a fake email disguised as an official US Government email requesting more money from us. We have verified BOTH OF THESE FACTS with an attorney and the US Patent and Trademark Office. We gave all of this information and more in great detail to Capital One, yet they refuse to protect us and reverse this charge. Capital One will not help us at all. They are trying to force us to deal with this fraudulent company that has already proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to lie, steal, and cheat and to do whatever is necessary in order to steal our money. More detailed information below : _______________________________________________________ We have been frauded for over {$1200.00}. Here is how it happened. We had originally searched for a company to design a logo for our newly formed small business, and we found XXXX  XXXX  during that search. We submitted a request for more information regarding the logo design online. As a response, we received the original phone call from XXXX XXXX from someone who claimed their name was XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/2023. His phone number was ( XXXX ) XXXX and his email address is XXXX. We discussed the logo design process and agreed on the process and used a different credit card ( XXXX XXXX ) to pay the agreed upon {$170.00} charge for the logo design. The charges later showed up on that credit card statement for {$170.00} to XXXX XXXX XXXX. I have seen things like this happen before, a different name on a credit card statement than who you thought you were dealing with, so I did not think much about it. 

XXXX XXXX then began upselling us and discussing another service they offered, Trademark Registration. Since we wanted to have our business name and our new logo trademarked, he claimed that they would handle all the legal processes and give us TWO legally registered trademarks that would be good for life for {$1200.00}, which he claimed was far less expensive than what attorneys usually charge. Since we are new business owners for the first time in our lives, and since we have absolutely no experience with registering a trademark, we agreed. I have uploaded the receipt for this transaction that XXXX XXXX provided to us. 

I was charged {$1200.00} on XX/XX/2023 for these TWO trademarks to be registered for life. I was told that they would design the logo, and AFTER that was completed that they would register our TWO trademarks. So far, so good. The logo design took much longer than anticipated. In the end, my wife designed the logo herself, and we asked XXXX XXXX to turn it into the proper file typeslike .png, etc. 
After the logo design was completed, on XX/XX/2023, I received a phone call from another person from XXXX XXXX who claimed his name was XXXX XXXX. We had spoken to him several times regarding the details of the logo design. But on XX/XX/2023, XXXX called and requested that we have a conference call with XXXX of their attorneys that evening. We agreed to discuss it at that time. This XXXX XXXX attorney, whose name I do not recall, talked to us for about 30-45 minutes and began claiming that they had already filed for our trademarks, but that the US Patent and Trademark Office had replied stating that someone else was also wanting our company name, and that we had 48 hours to pay over {$3000.00} for protection from several different state and federal agencies in order to assure that we would be able to get to trademark our company name. He put lots of pressure on us to pay quickly, and many red flags went up in our minds. At that point for the first time this really seemed like a scam. 

This attorney also sent us an email after that phone call in which he claimed was from the US Patent and Trademark Office, which he claimed stated how much we needed to pay and why we needed to pay these extra fees. I uploaded a printout of that fake email to a secure document link to Capital One as one of many proofs of the fact that this was a fraudulent charge. The email address is fake, which can easily be verified as all US government emails end with .gov ( dot gov ). This email was from the email address XXXX. This is an incorrect format. I have spoken with a representative directly at the US Patent and Trademark Office and a Trademark Attorney who confirmed that this email address is fake and should have ended with .gov ( DOT GOV ) and not usptogov.us. Both of them Also confirmed that no one had filed for any trademarks for us at that time, and both of them confirmed that they never give 48 hour deadlines to pay fees, and again that no one ever filed any trademarks for us, which is what we paid XXXX XXXX {$1200.00} to do for us. They did not do it. They still have not done it. They have scammed us and they have frauded us. I performed a search of the USPTO website at https : //www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search as requested by a Capital One representative and have uploaded a screenshot of those search results, which proved even further that we were frauded in this {$1200.00} charge as there was no trademark application that had ever been made for us. Anything that is even close to our company name should register in this search, and our company name should be the first one listed once a trademark has actually been filed. The screenshot I uploaded to Capital Ones secure document link showed the closest matches, which are not ours.

A little more information : Other than one email that contained a document titled Trademark Questionnaire Form USPTO, which I also uploaded to Capital One, we handled all discussions regarding the trademark process via phone calls with XXXX XXXX by either him calling us or us calling him at ( XXXX ) XXXX. I uploaded phone call logs from discussions on XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX with XXXX XXXX. These screenshots were also requested by Capital One and I followed their instructions and advice. This is even further proof which was provided to Capital One. We were not given any information other than verbal agreements over the phone that they would perform the trademark registrations for us, that they would be good for life, and that XXXX XXXX would handle all the legal processes. At no time during our discussions with XXXX XXXX regarding the trademark process were time frames mentioned, and I was not told of any refund policies. 

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. Please let me know if any other information is needed and I will do my best to help. I can upload any further proof of the events I have described as needed. I will cooperate in any way that I can. 

Thank you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation