A Chicago small business owner said a ghost merchant charged more than $40,000 to his Chase credit card and he had to fight for a reversal and refund.

CHICAGO (WLS) — A small Chicago housing developer is in a major dispute with its bank over more than $40,000 in fraudulent charges that its owners believe were made by scammers.

Jeff Benacci’s fight against fraud began almost immediately after his Lincoln Park-based company, Lexington Homes, ordered the renderings.

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“We wanted to get a bird’s-eye view and an overview of what the finished community will look like,” he said.

The developer hired a Canadian company, but the renderings didn’t live up to his expectations. He canceled the order and offered to pay for the work, but he says he never heard back. Instead, he began seeing huge charges on his Chase credit card under the name of a different company based in the same Canadian city.

“This is the fake invoice,” Benack said. “This is what was sent to Chase Bank.”

Benatti believes someone used fraudulently an existing vendor account to create the fake invoices. The bogus company charged Benatti’s Chase account more than $40,000. It’s unclear how the fake company got hold of Benatti’s credit card information.

“We haven’t even done a mid-rise building,” he said, looking at the renderings the ghost merchant had sent him.

Benack filed a fraud complaint with Chase Bank, but the fraudsters got there before him.

“They doctored emails from my assistant to make it look like we had been communicating back and forth and had ordered all this stuff,” he said.

Benacci said he contacted the original company, which told him it had not charged him, but Chase sent him a letter saying the transaction was valid and “will continue,” closing the matter.

After getting an attorney didn’t help, Benack contacted the I-Team. A few days later, he got a call from Chase.

“We have looked into this matter and found you to be correct,” Benack said, summarizing Chase’s letter. “You did not make these charges and we will provide a full refund.”

Chase told the I-Team, “We had to sort out discrepancies from the merchant as well as the documentation that initially prompted us to verify the transaction. We are disappointed with the delay but are pleased to have been able to resolve this in our customers’ favor.”

Mr. Benatti was ecstatic to get his money back.

This is a reminder that whether you’re a business or a consumer, you need to monitor charges on your accounts online, dispute any suspicious charges immediately, and set up text or push alerts for any high-value transactions.