Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Lynette Evans faces $30,000 in fraudulent charges due to overlooked statements.
- Chase Bank insists charges are valid despite Evans' claims of fraud.
- Evans urges vigilance in reviewing statements to prevent similar financial issues.
WEST VALLEY CITY — More Utahns are dealing with rising credit card debt. If you're only making minimum payments, you might not notice fraudulent charges posted on your statement. Lynette Evans wishes she had.
Evans admits she hadn't closely reviewed her monthly statements. She'd been sick, fallen into debt, and just kept paying the minimum — until one day she actually looked.
"Over $30,000," she said of the total amount of fraudulent charges from two years ago.
The charges included dozens of just over $1,000 transactions at grocery stores across the Salt Lake Valley. Evans contacted her credit card company, Chase Bank.
"I have a lot of, I would say, fraud," she said.
But Chase insists she still owes. Chase wrote to Evans that the bank determined the "transaction(s) is valid." She appealed. Chase didn't budge and added that it had "researched it thoroughly."
"I don't know what to do. I don't know how I'm going to pay it," she said. "It's more than our first house was."
She asked KSL to investigate.
'No evidence of fraud'
A spokesperson told KSL what the bank told Evans: It found "no evidence of fraud." Added in the response was its encouragement for "all customers to regularly review their statements and promptly report any concerning activity."
And while federal law says consumers aren't on the hook for fraudulent credit card charges under the Fair Credit Billing Act, it also says waiting more than 60 days to dispute charges means the issuer isn't required to reverse them or even to investigate.
"It's made me not sleep good … wondering how these are going to get paid," Evans said.
She is on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in charges she says she did not make.
She said she hopes to help encourage others to "watch your statements more and be careful."
Payments can make fraudulent credit card charges look legit
Credit card companies use computers to flag fraud. Chase's system even flagged the charges that appeared on Evans' statement at one point.
But scammers know that small payments can trick the system into thinking charges are legit. And by making minimum payments, Evans, may have unintentionally helped make that happen in her case.
