Chicago man says he got runaround repeatedly after being locked out of prepaid debit card for friend

CHICAGO (CBS) — A Chicago man said he experienced finger-pointing and frustration while trying to help a friend battling cancer.

Michael Cozzi bought a prepaid debit card for his friend and put $300 of his own money on it—only to be told by every party involved with the card that it was in someone else’s name and he couldn’t unlock the money.

Cozzi is the kind of guy who would walk to the end of the earth to help a pal.

“She’s been dealing with cancer for a while,” Cozzi said.

That was what brought Cozzi to Fullerton and Central avenues in the Belmont Central neighborhood, waiting for the bus multiple times to go to the Walgreens there to buy—then deal with—the prepaid debit card for his friend.

“She even needs a kidney transplant right now,” Cozzi said.

Cozzi first came into a Walgreens at that intersection to buy a Netspend Visa prepaid debit card for his friend in need. He said he carefully inspected the packaging first.

“When he took it off the rack, I turned it over to make sure it was all sealed,” Cozzi said.

When Cozzi bought the card, Cozzi said the cashier scanned his state ID before loading it with the $300 in cash he had forked over. But the card would not activate when he got home.

“I called Netspend,” Cozzi said. “They said that the card is not in my name—it’s in someone else’s name.”

That plea for help on the phone only raised Cozzi’s blood pressure.

“I said, ‘Well, whose name is it? And I just bought it, and it was sealed off the rack,'” he said. “They said, ‘Well, we can’t give you that information.'”

Cozzi is persistent, so he has moved onto multibillion-dollar corporation number two—Visa.

“Then I tried calling Visa. They gave me the same story—same excuse. ‘Well, the card’s not in your name. There’s nothing we could do.’ But the money is on there,” he said. “I said, ‘So what am I supposed to do now?’ ‘Go back to Walgreens.'”

So the 73-year-old hopped on the bus, again and again, to go back to the Walgreens at Fullerton and Central avenues.

“I came back to Walgreens two or three times,” Cozzi said, “and boy oh boy—let me tell you something. These people are too much.”

Needless to say, no one could unlock Cozzi’s elusive $300 for his ailing friend. So he went old-school—hand-writing a complaint to the Illinois Attorney General.

In the complaint, he asked for a refund, and detailed how, “They just blew (him) off.”

“Aw man, are you kidding?” Cozzi said. “Three hundred dollars weighs a lot on anybody.”

The Federal Trade Commission went after Netspend several years ago, when many consumers could not access their funds. The financial services company eventually reached a settlement.

“The broader point here is that these cards are definitely ripe for fraud,” said Ted Rossman, a financial industry analyst for Bankrate.

Rossman explained how a prepaid debit card works.

“It’s basically money that you or someone else load onto a piece of plastic, essentially,” Rossman said, “You know, I would kind of think of this as a gift card.”

Prepaid debit cards have plenty of drawbacks, Rossman said.

“Cons would be that it doesn’t quite have the same level of protections, like, you know, credit cards are really the gold standard when it comes to buyer protections,” he said.

Unlike credit cards, it may not be easy to get things fixed if something goes wrong with a prepaid debit card.

“The rules are really kind of being written as we go,” Rossman said. “It’s not always clear to consumers, and I feel like that’s one of the key pain points here.”

“Pain” is an appropriate word for a sick friend’s unusable present.

“I was unable to help her,” Cozzi said, “and you know, that really me.”

Cozzi said he would not buy a prepaid debit card again.

“No. No,” he said. “I would give her cash, because these things are nothing but trouble.”

Netspend promises to get Cozzi his money back so he can help his friend. The company released this statement:

“We follow protocols we’ve established to protect customers, and while we move as quickly as possible, it can take time. We understand the difficulty this creates for our customers like Mr. Cozzi, particularly in light of his circumstances. That’s why we take these matters seriously.

“Even one fraud is too many, and we work hard to prevent it and stay ahead of issues that are constantly evolving.

“We have teams dedicated to security, risk and compliance who diligently monitor and analyze issues, respond in real time and work closely with partners and law enforcement.

“In fact, less than .0004% of retail sales of Netspend cards involve these types of scams.”

There has not been a clear answer about what happened, with the company only saying it is a “probable case of fraud.”

Visa did not respond to requests for comment. Walgreens said once the card is purchased, they are not involved in the activation.