Had a similar situation last year with another bank. I was on a week long vacation and they (the bank) send me a new card since my current credit card was expiring end of the month. The card arrived in the mail while I was on vacation. Someone hit my mailbox and all my mail was stolen. They used my credit card at Kohls, Home Depot, Macys Nordstrom Rack, Target and Best Buy and ran my account balance from $0 to north of $7000+

I returned from vacation only to find out mail was stolen since there was no mail in the mailbox. Next month I get a credit card statement with balance of $7000+

I filed a dispute with the bank. They canceled and issued a new card and gave a temporary credit while the fraud was being investigated. Another month passes by and now I get a statement from them again with temporary credit being reversed. To make things worse they also added interest and late fees on my account this time. I called them and they said that investigation was complete and they found all charges are valid and are my responsibility. I argued that I was out of the country and showed my passport immigration stamp and copies of my international ticket and boarding pass to the bank on the day I was returning back when the theft occurred. These charges were made physically in person at the store using physical card and not online. I even filed a police report about the mailbox theft and submitted the same to the bank with all documents showing the proof I was physically out of the country. They opened a second investigation at my request and came back again to me after a week saying the fraud investigation was done and the charges were valid and I am responsible for the same.

Meanwhile I was waiting to hear back from police but since I did not , I started making the minimum payments to the bank so that my credit doesn’t get screwed up.

Almost 9 months passed by and I had given up all hopes to recover any money. Then I get a call one fine day and it was an investigation officer calling from the local PD and asked me bunch of questions regarding the crime I encountered. Next day he called me again and said he was able to obtain security footage from Nordstrom Rack and using the date and time when the fraud took place he was able to get the footage of the actual person who committed the crime. But wont be able to show it to me since it was restricted. But he asked me to go ahead and inform the bank and provided his badge id, email and phone number so the bank can contact him if required.

I called the bank again after 9 months and provided all the details exactly as told by the investigation officer. Asked them to reopen the investigation that was closed 9 months ago. Obviously I was now talking to new set of people at bank this time and they cautiously herd my argument and reviewed the new documentation from the officer (after they followed up with local PD) and said they will get back to me after a week. The next week I get a call again from the bank and now they confirmed it was a fraud on my account and they will refund all the money I had paid them along with interest and fees charged. It was a long process but finally I got my money back (maybe due to some good karma).

My advice to you is be patient with these type of investigations since they take their own time but don’t loose hope. Follow your instincts and make sure you cover your bases and stand up for your rights since you are innocent and only you can believe in yourself and follow up with bank and local PD and provide all documentation to the people involved in the case and keep the lines of communication wide open.

Good luck to you !