Think your money is safe with Chase? Think again.
A reader sent us this harrowing story that is full of an unbelievable amount of incompetence on Chase’s part.
I would like to tell you what is happening to us at this very moment..
In the early morning hours of September 22nd my husband and I witnessed a man trying to steal our truck. We caught him in the act, but not before he ran away with my husbands wallet. We gave chase but he evaded us. Inside the wallet was my husbands drivers license, his debit card, a credit card and his military ID witch contained his social security number. I immediately called our bank, Chase, and reported the card stolen and had the card deactivated. I also called the credit card company and did the same. Since his social security number had now been compromised, I also placed a fraud alert with the 3 credit bureaus. Even going one step further, I placed a freeze on both our credit with all 3 as well. We also filed a police report. I thought we were ok since I had done my part as a consumer to protect ourselves from possible harm.
The following Wednesday, September 26th, I went online and checked my bank account like I do every few days. I noticed i was several hundred dollars in the negative. I start scrolling through the charges and see numerous fraudulent purchases, as well as a $500 cash withdrawal and a deposited $400 fraudulent check from someone I had never met. Immediately I called chase to find out what happened. I was informed that the card had been re-activated on Monday the 24th. I asked how this was possible and I was told that this was done at a branch. So this criminal who stole our information walked into the bank, sat down with a manager and was handed our bank account on a silver platter. I was transferred all over the place demanding answers as to how this could be allowed to happen when I had already reported the card stolen, and a replacement was on the way. I was told I needed to go into a branch to find out. I called my husband, who left work and went to the nearest chase branch.
Turns out, the branch he went to was the very branch that gave this man our account. After 3 hours of questioning, my husband was informed that “It didn’t look good for us because the man made ATM transactions, which would require them man to know my husbands pin number. ”
I proceeded to call the bank several times that day and was given no help. I also called the branch and asked how this was allowed to happen. The manager stumbled and stuttered and referred me back to the fraud department, who had referred me back to the branch. Several times I asked the fraud department, as well as the actual branch if a new card had been issued. I was repeatedly told NO.
My husband went back to the police station to file a report about his identity being used and was told ” Good luck, the city just fired 300 law enforcement personnel and this would very low on the priority list.”
Getting no help from the bank, and no help from the police, we started going through the charges. There was a charge for a hotel a few cities away. My husband went to that hotel and discovered that the man was still there using my husbands name. He called the police for that city, who immediately responded. When the police went to the room, they discovered a man there who had my husbands ID, credit card and debit card. Not just one debit card, but 2 debit cards in my husbands name. After going to the station to identify the man, it was discovered that this was not the man who stole the wallet. The police investigation is still ongoing so all I can say is we did find the military ID.
The next morning my husband went back to the bank with the new card number written down, along with the case number from the police. He spoke with the vice president of the branch this time, who went white upon seeing my husband and hearing the story. It was her who had sat across from the criminal and given him a new card and new pin number. Why were we told several times that no new card had been issued??
The woman called corporate and explained what had happened, telling them that we were indeed victims of fraud. They re-opened the investigation but were told that it still doesn’t look good. They’re now looking at us as if we are the criminals.
In the meantime, I am in the negative, my direct deposit paycheck is somewhere floating in space because my account is frozen. I have my car payment and mortgage due, have very little food left and am already very close to my credit card limit. I received an email from the gas company saying that the payment I made on Friday sept 21 was returned due to my frozen account. This was not on the list of fraudulent changes, and in fact was made before the card was ever even stolen.
I am at an utter loss for words. Here are 2 working class citizens who pay our taxes, have never been overdrawn at the bank, not a single blemish on our records yet are being treated like criminals for something that bank is 100% at fault for.
I did my part. And you turned around and allowed a criminal to over take my account, and now are pointing the finger at us. How can’t this happen? If this investigation does not end in our favor, I will reporting this to the OCC as well as every media outlet I can get in touch with. This is wrong,and chase needs to take responsibility for what they have done.
Bad bad Chase, Fraud, Ineptitude | admin September 30, 2012 | 
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