Complaint Review: Direct Express US Government Debit Card by Comerica Bank

On November 1st, 2013, I found a transaction that I did not benefit from and did not authorize on my Government pushed prepaid MasterCard, from Direct Express. I found this out at approximately 2am Eastern Time, when I went to the ATM to withdraw my rent money, and some travel money, and the ATM informed me that I had insufficient funds in my account for the withdrawl. So I logged into my account on my cell phone, while still at the ATM, to find out what the balance was, and quickly emptied my account of the remaining funds. I returned home, at this point, about 10 minutes later, and logged into the account online to find that Stamps.com had authorized a transaction for $127.92 at 1:57am Eastern time. I immediately called Direct Express at the phone number on the back of the card, attempting to dispute the transaction. The representative, informed me that I could not dispute the transaction, as it had not settled, yet, that I had to call back when the transaction settled. So, before I hung up with the representative, I asked them to cancel the card, as it had been compromised. This cost me $4.00.

On November 3rd, I checked the account, and found that the transaction to Stamps.com had cleared, so I contacted Direct Express, once again. I was informed that they needed the dispute in writing, on their foms. So they mailed me out a form, which I clearly deliniated, that I did not authorize the transaction, that I still had my card in my possession, and that there had been numerous amounts of Card Skimming at the local grocery store, earlier in 2013, which I had used the card at a few times, and mailed it back in to Direct Express. This was around November 15th or so, that they received the paperwork back.

They issued a decision, on November 15th, the same day that they received the forms, denying the claim, and stating that there was a Transaction from April. 2013, that had occurred, and therefore, I had allegedly agreed to sign up for services with Stamps.com in April, 2013. I immediately requested all copies of evidence that they used to determine this. On December 18th, I received a copy of the evidence, all that was contained in the evidence package was the letter denying the claim, the original dispute form that I had filed, the dispute investigators notes, and a copy of November, 2013's account statement. Nothing showing a transaction from April, 2013, nor that they contacted Stamps.com to obtain any evidence of a contract between myself and Stamps.com, which there wouldn't be anything, anyway.

I immediately sent everything to my LegalShield attorney, for review, by him, and he sent a letter, around December 24th, 2013, to both Stamps.com and Direct Express. He, nor I ever received a response from Stamps.com, however, Direct Express, stood by their decision, in a letter dated February 25th, 2014. By this time, I had received 2 invoices from Stamps.com regarding this fraudulent account.

I contacted Stamps.com on 2/25/2014, via their website's contact us feature, since I do not have an account, I provided the account number on the Invoice, in the email, their response, was to call in, and I received that reply email on 2/28/2014, so I called in. The first representative from Stamps.com that I spoke with was very appologetic, and determined that the account that charged my Direct Express card, was obtained fraudulently, and subsequently closed the account, and told me to attempt a 3 way call with Direct Express, to verify, that Stamps.com had closed the account out as being Fraudulent. So I hung up with him.

I called Direct Express, and got transferred to the Disputes Department. I explained to the representative, that Stamps.com had asked me to initiate a 3 way call, so they can verify with Direct Express that the account that charged the card from Stamps.com was fraudulently opened, so Direct Express can reverse the transaction. Direct Exoress refused to allow me to do the 3way call, telling me that Direct Express determined that the transaction was valid, and therefore nothing could be done, and hung up on me.

So, I contacted Stamps.com, again, spoke with a Supervisor with Stamps.com, and was informed, that they do not issue refunds for fraudulent accounts, because it is the banks responsibility, to reverse the transaction, on a fraudulent account.

So I called Direct Express, again, spoke with another Disputes Department representative, who explained, that I need to file a request for a Secondary Review, and supply any and all evidence that Stamps.com closed the account out as a fraudulent transaction. This will be mailed out via USPS Certified Mail, Return Receipt mail on March 3rd, 2014.