Pursuit scam: Hayward, California woman gets 70 credit cards in the mail, issued to 70 total strangers added to her account

It happened in the most unusual way for a Hayward woman who found a beautiful delivery in her mailbox.

It’s troubling – and almost surreal.

This woman unexpectedly received a stack of letters with not one or two but 70 Chase credit cards, issued to 70 complete strangers, all in her credit card account. More trouble – it never raises a red flag when someone adds 70 names to her account. Instead, the bank went ahead and issued all those fraudulent credit cards.

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A whole bunch of envelopes arrived at Tina Kumar’s mailbox at once.

“I’ve never heard of something outrageous. I’ve never seen something outrageous,” she said. “I was overwhelmed when I saw the envelopes. I didn’t know what was going on. And I’ve been in shock ever since.”

What was the most shocking? Each envelope contained two Chase bank credit cards, each with a different name on the front – and her account number on the back.

“This person is Derrick White and Taylor Thompson,” Kumar said as she handed the cards to 7 On Your Side.

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“I was really dumbfounded when I saw it. It was just beyond belief,” she said.

Immediately, she called the number on the card to find out what was going on, and suddenly realized she had just activated her account!

For 70 strangers!

“And when I heard that my card was activated, I freaked out. It was like, ‘Oh no, oh no,'” she said.

She called Chase customer service – and got more sad news.

“He said on March 25, someone logged into my account and added 70 names. And I said, well, how could that have happened? And, and why didn’t I get notified? newspaper? Right?” Kumar asked.

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The bank closed the account, issued her a new card and a new login.

Fortunately no one has used the cards.

“I’m sure, you know, people who are waiting for it to be activated, are going crazy over charging,” Kumar said.

But no one has been able to explain how 70 fraudulent credit cards got past any fraud detection at the bank.

“That’s outrageous. I mean, how could you not have some red flags in your system to prevent this from happening? Where are the checks and balances?” Kumar asked.

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“I can understand two, three, maybe four or five. But 70? Now,” she said.

Chase promised to get a call from the manager. It never came.

“You’d think someone from upper management would contact me and say, ‘Let me check this, and I’ll get back to you, which should never have happened.” Something like that would calm me down,” Kumar said.

“Why hasn’t anyone contacted me? You know, at least sorry that this happened? Tell me something for god’s sake, you know, but no, nobody seems to care. ,” she concluded.

Kumar contacted 7 On Your Side.

We asked Chase how this happened and why no one informed Kumar that she has 70 new authorized users on her account.

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The bank did not provide specific answers, only general banking information, saying:

“For flexibility, we allow customers to add other users to their credit card accounts. Both confirmations of any new authorized users and additional cards are sent directly to the owner. accounts at their address In this case the unauthorized cards were promptly closed after Ms. Kumar received them.

“Cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized charges made with their cards, and we encourage customers to notify us if they notice anything unusual with their accounts.”

It was a small consolation for Tina Kumar.

“What’s going to happen next, you don’t know. It’s scary. It’s scary,” she said.

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Kumar told us a Chase executive just called her to apologize, promising to investigate what happened.

She had just renewed that credit card when 70 additional cards arrived in the mail. She hasn’t activated her yet.

Chase did not say whether it would change its fraud detection system to catch this type of criminal.

For more information from Chase about their safety measures, click here.

See more stories and videos by Michael Finney and 7 On Your Side.

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