I-Team's Call For Action gets man refund after thieves spend $6,000 on Airbnbs
MERRIMACK -- A Merrimack man discovered thousands of dollars of fraudulent charges on his credit card and the bank said he was responsible for it until the I-Team stepped in.
Daniel Dam said he's had a lot of sleepless nights worrying about Airbnb fees on this credit card. "It's fraud, it's not mine. Obviously, something got compromised. I don't have a habit of running up credit card debt. I don't have a habit of going out and splurging," he explained.
But in April, thieves did splurge. Using Dan's Chase bank card, they racked up $5,559 in stays at high-end Airbnb homes.
Dan said his credit limit is $6,500 and it was maxed out. He contacted Chase and Airbnb and notified them that he didn't authorize the charges.
At first, Dan said Chase agreed that it was fraud and issued him a new card.
Weeks later, the bank called Dan back and told him they wanted to get the money back from Airbnb and said it was putting the charges back on his account. Chase also told Dan he would have to solve the problem with Airbnb on his own, leaving Dan with a balance of more than $5,000 plus interest on this credit card.
Dan made several attempts to resolve the fraudulent charges with no luck. That's when he reached out to the I-Team's Call for Action and we contacted Chase. Within two days the bank contacted us and said they were removing the charges from Dan's account and refunding him the interest he paid.
Now with a zero balance on his credit card, Dan said he is no longer losing sleep. "I'd say you solved it in a week. I owe you big time. I have always appreciated WBZ. I'm super grateful."
In most cases, credit card companies will refund unauthorized purchases. Under federal law, consumers are only liable for up to fifty dollars in fraudulent charges no matter how much money was stolen.