CHICAGO (WLS) — A small Chicago real estate development company was in a battle with its bank over more than $40,000 in fraudulent charges. The owner believes the charges came from a phantom dealer.
Jeff Benach’s fight against fraud began shortly after his company, Lexington Homes in Lincoln Park, commissioned renderings.
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“I wanted to give a glimpse of what the community would look like once the project is completed, seen from a bird’s eye perspective,” he said.
The developer hired a Canadian company, but their renderings weren’t what he expected. He canceled the order and said he offered to pay them for their work, but he never heard back. Instead, he said he started seeing large charges on his Chase credit card with the name of another company based in the same Canadian city.
“That’s the fake invoice,” Benach said. “That’s what they sent to Chase.”
He believes someone fraudulently used existing accounts payable to create fake invoices. The ghost merchant charged Benach’s Chase account more than $40,000. It’s unclear how the ghost company obtained his credit card information.
“We don’t even do mid-rise buildings,” he said, looking at the renderings the ghost dealer sent him.
Benach filed a complaint with the fraud firm Chase, but the fraudsters beat him to it.
“They doctored my assistant’s emails. They doctored them to make it look like we had a nice exchange, back and forth, ordering all these things,” he said.
Benach said he even contacted the original seller, who claimed they didn’t charge him. But Chase sent Benach a letter saying they had closed his file, saying the transaction was valid and “the transaction would stand.”
When his lawyer’s intervention didn’t help either, Benach contacted the investigation team. A few days later, he received a call from Chase.
“We looked into all of this and we found that yes, you are correct,” Benach said, summarizing Chase’s letter. “You did not make these charges and we will refund everything.”
Chase told the investigation team: “We had to address some inconsistencies on the merchant side, as well as in the documentation that initially led us to validate the transactions. We regret the delay, but are pleased that this has been resolved in favor of our customer.”
Benach was delighted to get his money back.
This is a reminder: Whether you are a business or a consumer, you should monitor charges made to your online account. Dispute any suspicious charges immediately. You should also set up SMS or push alerts for large transaction amounts.
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