Complaint Review: Synchrony Bank Amazon Prime Store Card

It is really of no consequence whether your credit union or the bank itself thinks this was an unauthorized transaction.  So what made it an unauthorized transaction?  Not the bank or the credit union - since of course the bank sees the Amazon transaction occurring, tells your credit union to initiate a transaction, and it does so. 

All of these transactions happen electronically - there isn't one human being involved between the two institutions.  In fact, the only human involved - really - is your thief who put a bogus Amazon order using your login credentials and simply let the fact that electronically generated transactions will simply follow their programming without question.  Yet, you are unwilling to accept the fact that there was a thief involved who locked you out of your Amazon account - which is where all of this damage started - and you somehow come to the conclusion it must be the bank's fault? 

Doesn't really matter what your bank or credit union says; their answer will always be it must be a bank's fault.  Why?  Because your CU has no ability to see past that bank - your CU won't see the initial fraud created before the bank initiated the debit from your account, for which the CU paid.

There is a morale to this story and it is the only thing people should take away from this entire conversation regarding your complaint:  Safeguard your passwords and use strong passwords for your various online applications.  Make sure your computers are free from malware and don't use unsecured wi-fi spots to initiate purchases.  Never rule out any possibility, especially a thief, if you're somehow locked out of your account...

And none of us work for a bank, a reputation company, or anything of the sort.  You invited the public to make a comment when you posted your complaint here.  The public is simply responding.

I am no longer playing this game with whomever you say you are...You are attempting to muddy the waters with gibberish.  I never once said, Synchrony allowed someone access to my account.  I stated, very clearly,  Synchrony, themselves went into my account and withdrew almost $900 without authorization, just because they had my access information. 

You have beat this to death, and it is most clear that your job is to do just that...minimize reputation damage. ...so write whatever you like in this forum....but you better check "consumer affairs," and  the "better business bureau," as well.   And in closing...like I said...my bank agrees that this was a totally unauthorized withdrawal.  Have a good day.

You are convinced that they intentionally allowed someone to get into your account, make a purchase, and then make a payment on your account. Perhaps we are asking the wrong question to see where you are coming from.   So, as with any criminal activity there is always a motive, so what do you believe their motive in doing this?

As for being paid. One standard on this site is when someone posts something that doesn't agree with the narrative that they are trying to show, the original poster will very often go to the "Oh you must work for them(or get paid by them)". The fact is that the people that post here unless they identify themselves as an employee are regular consumers.

I personally have been "accused" of working for everything from credit card companies, to car dealers, to banks, and I was even accused of being the Chief of Police of a small town once. So it should go without saying, but no I do not now or have I ever worked for either of these companies.

Update: My bank took the money back, which indeed, did go to Synchrony, and I thank them for their timely response.  It doesn't matter how you "sugar coat" this situation, Synchrony bank, removed a significant amount of money from my account without my authorization, just because they had my account number. 

That situation I have fixed by removing my account number.   I resent that you infer I am not intelligent by the amount of time I put into this situation.  That amount of time was verifying all of my financial information to make sure that there were no other issues.   This problem was further disturbing because they took the money out, while there was a pending investigation into $600 in unauthorized purchases. 

Now, this unauthorized activity by Synchrony bank, caused some payments that I did make to be returned and those fees totaled over $140.00 dollars.   I am curious to see if Sychrony Bank has enough honor to reimburse those fees.

In closing, I don't care who you say that you are...I could say that I am a quarter back for a national football league...it means nothing.  The fact is...Synchrony Bank removed funds (not anyone else) without authorization and that is wrong.  I am only responding to your last attempt at making something about this right, because I wanted to update that my bank took the money back from Synchrony. 

First of all, I spent almost 2 full days going through all accounts and verifying.  None of this should have taken more than a couple of hours to figure out what happened.  Seriously.  I mean there is really no common sense on your part if it took you that long to figure this out.  It took me 15 minutes to figure out what had happened to you.

I might think that you are a "reputation" service for this company.  Uh...no.  I am a consultant though for a few companies and foundations - mostly non-profits.  As if any of that really matters.  I am familiar with Synchrony, as are many people who have bought items on credit - and get terms equivalent to no interest for 12 months, or 24, or whatever - however if you don't pay within those terms...then Synchrony hits you with 12 months (or 24) months of interest in one shot.  You can read all of the Synchrony complaints for yourself on this website.

Synchrony, did indeed receive the funds taken from account, and I verified this with the bank this morning.   So, in addition Synchrony lied.  Not really.  From your initial narrative, you discovered the fraudulent transaction was made on a Thursday, for which the bank would have received payment Friday after most banks cutoff transactions for the week (ACH transactions are not instantaneous - they can take 24-72 hours to post). 

Any calls you would have made over the weekend, would not have revealed the payment was made until the transaction was processed, which would have been sometime early Monday morning, which you and the bank confirmed.  So, did Synchrony lie?  Not really.  The transaction simply wasn't refected as received until Monday.  That's how criminals work - they look for weaknesses with banks and companies and exploit those weaknesses to their advantage. 

So, I will reiterate, a "criminal" who is friendly to Synchrony Bank, went into my account and took, without authorization, almost $900 dollars and donated it to Synchrony Bank?  Doesn't have to be friendly with Synchrony bank - the person is simply a criminal - something for which you were willing to not even consider in the first place.  The criminal stole your Amazon login, changed all of your information, went shopping for speakers, and then paid for it by initiating the transaction with Amazon's partner Synchrony.  Synchrony had your CU payment information, so no problem there.  You don't need to be friendly with Synchrony - you just have to be a thief.  It is that simple.

The good news, from your narrative is that it doesn't sound like you have an ID theft issue, which would have been one of the concerns you should have had after initially reading your narrative.  The bad news, other than someone basically stealing your Amazon account, is that you have neither the common sense nor logic when working or dealing with the internet.  Hacking is a very commonplace occurence and criminals make a great deal more money off of people like you and I - rather than risk their existence by robbing people in person.  The fact you would not even consider that was a possibility from the start - when all of the telltale signs were there from the very beginning - is the real problem.  It should have been the first thing you should have thought of and should not have been ruled out so quickly.

When you can't login because someone changes your password, and then when you send a password reset request, and it never comes to you...that should have been an immediate sign that someone hacked you, changed your information, and then went shopping.  You chose instead to believe this was a customer service issue with Synchrony and/or Amazon, and then spent hours spinning your wheels speaking with people you couldn't understand (in the future, you can ask for a CSR in the US).  Am I a fan of Synchrony?  No, and they do make mistakes.  However, based on your rebuttal, they didn't.

Scenario:  Synchrony Bank has just allowed almost $600 purchase on my long-standing account without emailing me (an email I have had for years) any notice.  Synchrony Bank has both my routing number and account number giving them full access to my account.  To cover those losses, just in case, a substantial amount of money is paid to them covering the merchandise that should not have been purchased on my account.  Now, that account email is blocked by Synchrony.  I called, repeatedly and spent hours to be told "there is nothing we can do..."  I believe this was a stall tactic to stall my reviewing the account, and it worked...it took hours to get my long-standing account viewable.  So...

My Question to the RipOff Report victims is:  How many of you that have had unauthorized charges on your account have had the perpetrator also hack into your checking account,  remove an amount "in excess" of the merchandise that was essentially stolen; pay for it and then make a signficant payment on your account?

So, which scenario is logical or illogical?   I actually will not address this line of thinking further, it is a waste of time, and I actually am aware of several people who make a living putting in these "rebuttals" to dilute the seriousness of the issues to protect the reputations of individuals or businesses.  A word of caution to consumers:  Do not give institutions your routing and checking information (unless you are choosing to give them access to your account), use debit cards or bill pay to protect yourself.

I will start off by saying I have no idea where or how the payment was initiated, but to paraphrase the other poster you seem to be very quick to dismiss the logical for the illogical.

On one hand you are saying that someone at a multi-million dollar company has nothing better to do than to illegally hack into your account and deduct $900 to make a payment on your account?

On the other hand you have a criminal who hacked in your account, changed your information and then made purchases pretending they were you. Since they now have access to your account they can now use your Account and Routing Number to pay off any bill they want, including the speakers that were just purchased to make it look like you approved of it. After all since you like common sense, common sense says if you made a payment on the account after the purchase then the purchase must be legitimate..right?

Given those two scenarios which one is more logical?

As for you "donating" money to them. If the money did go to YOUR account, if your balance was more than the payment then it just paid down what you previously borrowed. If the payment was more than the balance then you did end up with a credit. However, they will send you the credit balance back. So yes, inconvienient and it very well could have been a mistake on their part. If it does turn out to be their mistake then they should also credit you for any fees it caused. But to go off on that they are doing this as some intentional criminal act doesn't add too much creditibility for you.

I do hope it works out for you.

First of all, I spent almost 2 full days going through all accounts and verifying.  I might think that you are a "reputation" service for this company.   Synchrony, did indeed receive the funds taken from account, and I verified this with the bank this morning.   So, in addition Synchrony lied. 

Anytime you give them your routing number and checking account number...they have access.   The also cost me well over $140.00 in bank fees.   So, I will reiterate, a "criminal" who is friendly to Synchrony Bank, went into my account and took, without authorization, almost $900 dollars and donated it to Synchrony Bank?  Please...not a very believable rebuttal.

mtt

I am pretty certain a “criminal” didn’t hack into my account and make a large payment on my Synchrony/Amazon account.  I'm sort of curious why you would rule that out as a possibility.  I mean if someone hacked your computer, then they may have all of your information - including online banking.  I mean there are at least a couple of signs in your narrative indicating it was a criminal:

1.  I then decided to go into my Amazon.Com online account which I have had for years...guess what...I cannot log in. I cannot get password resets sent, so more phone calls.  If a criminal hacked your account, then they could reset your password, and redirect any password resets you requested to a new e-mail address they control.  You'd never even know it even happened.  I mean getting $600 in fraudulent charges wouldn't necessarily mean a criminal hacked your account - I mean mistakes happen.  But when you join the fraudulent charges with the boldfaced part you wrote prior to this sure seems like it did.

2.  I had not received any email receipts or any other notification like I would, had I made an ordinary purchase.  The only way that could happen - again - is if someone got a hold of your account - and redirected your e-mails associated with the account.  It would also be consistent - again - with not getting password resets to your e-mail.  Receipts and password resets run off of your login information, so the fact neither were going to you both provide strong signals to the possibility you had your account hacked.

I just find it interesting you would rule out a criminal hacking your account when your narrative shows all of the signs of a classic criminal hack.  I would seriously reconsider the possibility you were hacked and if I were you, I would check all your accounts and even run your credit report on FTC.gov just in case.  Best of luck to you....