Disputing Fraudulent Credit Card Charges? Here's What You Need To Know

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- When a Sacramento woman's credit card company left her on the hook for almost $500 in fraudulent charges, she called Kurtis for answers.

Rose Moxley took a trip to Paris in October to celebrate her daughter's 30th birthday. Unfortunately, while visiting the Palace of Versailles, she realized her Chase credit card was missing.

The next day, she got a fraud alert and deactivated her card. When she got back home to Sacramento, she realized that the thieves had racked up almost $500 over 21 separate charges. She says Chase originally agreed to withdraw the charges.

"And then I looked at my bill the next month and all the charges were back on," said Moxley. "It was really emotional. It was kind of amazing because I have a lot of financial balls in the air at any given time and I expect companies to maybe not be very nice, but at least do their job."

Moxley, who's a Branch Manager for Sierra Pacific Mortgage, then appealed Chase's decision, submitting pages of evidence to show that her and her daughter we on the other side of Paris when the fraudulent charges occurred.

After Chase denied her appeal, Moxley filed a complaint about the disputed charges with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A review of the CFPB's database shows that she is one of 2,600 Californians who filed a similar complaint with the agency since 2020.

That appeal, unfortunately, was also denied. But when CBS13 reached out to Chase about Rose's situation, they reversed their decision.

"My biggest problem is that I don't know if I can feel good traveling again," she said. "What happens when it happens again? Someone might not charge $480. It might be $5,000 in one fell swoop."

That may have you wondering what to do if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

• First, file a police report. When you do that, you risk perjuring yourself if you're not telling the truth, so it give your claim more weight.

• Then, attach that police report to the appeal you file with your credit card company. And be sure to include any other documentation proving you didn't make the disputed charges.

• If that doesn't work, try filing a complaint online with the CFPB.

A spokesperson from Chase said that, upon detailed review, they were pleased to reverse the charges and advised the following:

• If you're worried about your account, contact the bank immediately.

• Proactively protect yourself by activating alerts to monitor your finances.

• If you misplace your card, you can easily lock it online or through the bank's app.

• Use the bank's tool to track where your card information is stored online.