Donald Lilly sent a message to David Nelms that said:
Mar. 20 2020
IMPORTANT: Possible illegalities in your âSecurity Departmentâ
In Feb I applied for and was approved for your Discover card. I received the card and have already made charges on it.
On Mar. 19th I got a call from your Discover âsecurityâ unit that they needed to further investigate my application for the card by having me fill out a form authorizing you to contact the IRS so they could look at my tax returns for 17 and 18!!! They informed me my card use is suspended until I comply and if I do not comply my card would be cancelled.
I am 72 years old and have applied for at least a hundred cards during my lifetime. And never once has a card company ever asked me to authorize them to nose into my very personal and private IRS tax forms. Yes, if I applied for hundreds of thousands for a home loan, I agree, my returns were in play. But for a credit card? Come on.
How do I see this action your company has taken?
First of all, we as consumers have constantly over the years been warned that a credit card company will NEVER call regarding changes to our accounts. It will always come in the mail. So naturally I was sure this call from your âsecurityâ department was just another scam. So today, the 20th I called to confirm. And sure enough, your security department is deviating from the universal norm of never calling customers and further, I was informed that indeed your company wants to see my Tax Returns, or else.
Naturally, I will not comply with your companies demand and so I was forced to close the account today, which was just opened and I am very upset to say the least. Sir, this is a form of blackmail as presented.
Furthermore, I will be penalized on my credit score for opening and closing an account for reasons I did not create, but which your company created.
I believe what your âSecurity Departmentâ is doing is illegal and highly unethical.
Why? First your officers approved my application, not forewarning me of this current condition for approval. Then your company contacts me weeks after you accept my application to inform me there is a new condition for further use of your card which I would have chosen not to accept had your request to look at my Tax Returns been part of the initial application.
This is equal to selling me something, and a month after using what I bought, getting a call from the seller demanding they see my tax returns as a condition to continue using the item. And because I chose not to keep the item, then penalizing my credit history, because I did not comply, like I am somehow a worse credit risk than the next guy when your company created the situation for me in the first place.
And that is why what you have done to me is illegal and unethical. Any contract entered into in good faith involves both parties providing all relevant information and conditions to the contract at the signing of the contract. Your company did not do that but chose to change the conditions after I accepted your offer.
I would like to hear from you as to your insight into what I have reported and would like to have my card reinstated without the threat of nosing into my Tax Returns, which no bank has ever required of me in the past. And I will be satisfied.
I have written to you first for a positive resolution to this matter. If my credit score is reduced because of your actions, and this is not resolved in my favor, I will contact whatever government agencies oversee your industry, and my congressman to consider investigating what is going on with your âsecurityâ departments methods regarding this blackmail scheme being perpetrated under the guise of fraud prevention.
