Description

On May 6th 2025, I was approached by 3 individuals in person who were identifying as a charity raising money for gun violence and funeral expenses for a child. I agreed to pay $5 to the cause. They asked for a credit card, and I gave them my Chase Sapphire. They said the card did not work, and then asked for another. I gave them my Discover card, where they said the transaction was successful. At this time, one of the three individuals had my phone in order to "send me my receipt". Without my knowledge or consent, the individual, pretending to respond as me, responded to a text from Discover, authorizing a charge for $*****. They texted back yes, and then deleted the text message chain so I could not see it after my phone was returned. I later found these text messages by contacting Apple customer care.The "volunteer" handed me back my phone with a copy of the $5 receipt. When my phone was returned to me, my Discover app was deleted. I quickly redownloaded and saw that 4 x $***** charges were charged, and 1 x $***** charge on my Chase Sapphire card. I quickly froze both accounts to prevent the charges going through, and headed directly to a local Chase branch within the hour. I let one of the employees know exactly what happened, and he was able to open a fraud case on my behalf. I then called Discover while in their office to begin the fraud review with them. I also filed a police report with the Chicago Police Department that night, and notified the three credit bureaus about the transactions. I was advised to shred both of the credit cards involved as the information was compromised, and was mailed new credit cards for use. I kept my accounts frozen until I was authorized by customer service that the new card activation was safe for me to "unfreeze" without the charges going through. However, once this occurred, the charges were on my Discover account, even with the dispute actively open. This did not seem to be the right course of action for the situation, as Chase had removed the charges that were under investigation, and due to the nature of the charges, the usage of my credit (near my max) caused my credit score to dramatically decrease. After about a month, I was notified by Discover that because I handed the merchant the card, it was not technically fraud because I approved "a transaction". However, it would potentially be considered a dispute since it is not the amount I agreed to. Chase eventually came to the same conclusion. Now, as the dispute has progressed, the copy of the receipt that I received via text for $5, which matches the times of the interaction, and the police report are not "sufficient evidence" for the companies.

They reached out to the merchant to investigate, and the merchant provided "proof of authorization", something that was done by one of the criminals involved. I did not consent to these repeated charges, and am not being given information by my providers for how to continue moving the case forward. Discover claimed that they could not use the police report as evidence because it did not fit the criteria for a dispute case. I tried to reach out to the merchant, PayPal Zettle, and I do not have an option to file a dispute directly with them, as they only allow their "merchants" to file disputes. They are saying the receipt I have is "illegitimate", which makes sense because I was never charged $5. However, it proves that that was the agreement that I was a part of, setting the terms for the in-person interaction. I am now looking for a fair resolution to the situation at hand. The 3 on 1 scenario put me in a dangerous situation, and had I realized what was going on sooner, there is the chance that I would have put myself in an even more dangerous, and potentially violent situation. These charges should not be charged to my account, and I should not be held responsible for the interest, or the penalties to my credit score.

They are trusting "merchants" that committed a financial crime, and are not helping a customer that was victimized in this situation. There should be better care and investigation practices in the ever evolving world of scams, and customer protections should be put in place when large, out of character charges are being put onto accounts. My credit history and spending habits have never shown these patterns, and I wish there were practices in place within the secure app (vs a text message) that could have protected me from this interaction. Part of the draw of getting a credit card is the safety compared to having cash or using your debit card, but in this scenario, my credit card has put me in a financial position I never could have gotten into had I only utilized a debit card. This system and the policies for this scenario have not been given the proper consideration, and impact me immensely.