My elderly mother had become the victim of credit card fraud from numerous merchants and charities. It was quite obviously with one "charity" charging a credit card two times on 9/20/13, charging a second card two times on 9/25/13 and charging the first card again on 9/26/2013. Sometimes the fraud was on a single card, but since there were problems across multiple cards the only way to show the entire picture was to show the charges from all accounts to each of the credit card providers. In this case two of the credit cards were issued by Chase Card Services and the third card was an American Express.
Despite this proof that was sent to them, Chase Card Services, refused to cancel the unauthorized charges. Chase insists that a victim (credit card holder) must contact the thief (merchant or charity that is fraudulently making charges) to request a refund. Merchants/charities were contacted, when possible, and refunds were requested. In some instances these merchants and/or charities refused to answer their phone so letters were sent in those instances requesting refunds. Despite this effort and numerous calls to Chase Card Service representatives and even with escalation to the executive offices of Chase, Chase absolutely refuses to cancel unauthorized charges. In fact if a merchant or charity has your card, you go and cancel that card due to fraud, theft, loss or abuse; if a merchant that had previously had an approved charge on the old card runs the old card number again it is a valid charge in the eyes of Chase. It matters not to Chase that I sent certified letters to these fraudulent businesses and charities. It matters not that I have complained to the attorney general of the state in which the account holder lives. It matters not that employees of Chase admit that they see this type of fraud going on all the time. Chase still refuses to refund or cancel the charge unless the criminal charity or criminal merchant issues a refund.
Companies are apparently also working in unison with each other to make these unauthorized charges. My mother received one refund check from a single entity which represented refunds for about 5 to 7 different merchants. That frightened me even more than the initial unauthorized charges to learn racketeering is running wild. I bought this up in at least two conversations with Chase employees, who admitted they've seen the same thing, but they can do nothing about it as Chase's corporate policy does not allow them to help the customer. Chase is neither an honest, nor ethically run business.
On this same issue I must give credit where credit is due. American Express has been wonderful to deal with. They handle the fraud themselves. They do not force their customer (the victim) to ask the merchant or charity (the criminal) for a refund. You report the problem... and problem solved.
Thus far I cancelled one of the two Chase accounts as I refuse to pay for unauthorized charges. We plan to contact a local attorney and discuss the pros and cons of taking Chase to court over this matter. I am strongly in favor of a lawsuit but many attorney's do not like to work with these nuisance cases. I have spent countless DAYS on this very issue, I am hopeful we can find an attorney that would like to seek some justice as well.