This section explains how to report fraudulent activity on a university PCard, including notifying Bank of America, the University of Arizona Police Department (UAPD), the PCard Liaison, and the Accounts Payable PCard Team. It also outlines the process for disputing billing errors with a merchant and emphasizes the importance of timely action to avoid financial liability.
How to Report Fraud
The PCard cardholder is responsible for reporting lost, theft or fraudulent activity that occurs on a university PCard, by following these steps:
- The cardholder must call Bank of America Customer Service at 1-866-500-8262 as soon as possible to verify and report the fraudulent activity. The bank will initiate a fraud recovery case for the fraudulent charges only if they are notified within 60 days from the billing date based on the date the charge appears in UAccess Financials.
- The cardholder must report fraudulent activity to the UAPD or local police department and provide as many details as possible. The police department will provide a case number to record fraudulent activity. This case number should be added to each PCard transaction that is referenced in the fraud report.
- The cardholder must notify the PCard liaison and the Accounts Payable PCard Team by emailing them at FNSV-Accounts-Payable@arizona.edu with the date Bank of America was notified and the police department case number that the fraudulent activity was reported. The PCard Liaison should ensure the Police department case number is recorded on every PCard transaction associated with fraudulent activity.
When fraud is reported, Bank of America will automatically send a new card. The report shows that the card was closed, and a new card was sent to the address.
If the bank is not contacted within the notification period, fraudulent charges could become the liability of the cardholder's department, or if denied by the department, the liability of the cardholder.
Disputing a Transaction
A disputed transaction can be identified as an error in the billing by the vendor or merchant to include billed for the incorrect amount, billed without receiving merchandise, billing on a cancelled order. In these scenarios the cardholder should contact the merchant to try and resolve the error direction before issuing a dispute on the card. In most cases this can be resolved promptly with credit to the card and a rebilling of the correct amount.
If the cardholder is unable to resolve with the merchant, they should inform the PCard reconciler and/or approver who will contact Accounts Payable via email with the details of the dispute and work with the university banking partner to resolve.
The dispute process does not stop or delay the payment of the charge. The merchant has been paid if the charge appears in UAccess Financials as a PCard transaction, which needs to be reconciled and approved. The Bank of America dispute department may request information directly from the cardholder. It is important that the cardholder responds to the Bank of America dispute department within the specified time if they wish to continue disputing the charge.
An unrecognized or unauthorized transaction that the cardholder or responsible cardholder did not initiate is considered a fraud transaction.