Fraud Alert Flags Guilfoyle Card Over Unusual Activity: Asking a Donor to Pay It

WILMINGTON, DE — The fraud department at a credit card company says it went to its highest alert level after flagging the strangest activity in its 31-year history on a six-figure balance belonging to Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece: a reported request for somebody else to pay it.

“We catch skimmers at gas stations. We catch a guy in Lisbon buying 400 gift cards at 3 a.m.,” said Marla Overlimit, 47, a senior fraud analyst at Aegean Platinum Rewards. “We have never caught a bill trying to get itself a donor. The system didn’t have a code for it.”

The alert followed a Wall Street Journal report that Guilfoyle texted a Trump donor about a roughly $100,000 credit card bill in exchange for access, a claim her attorneys dispute, saying the donor owed her money for speeches. Overlimit said the team took it personally, since it meant the card’s 0% intro APR was never the best financing offer on it.

On Tuesday, new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia used her first briefing, which ran under 15 minutes and took three questions, to say, “We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign.” Guilfoyle resigned and vowed to “vigorously defend” herself. Overlimit noted that the briefing was still shorter than the company’s average hold time.

The company has since added a new option to its dispute form, between “I don’t recognize this charge” and “My card was stolen,” that reads “A donor was supposed to get this one,” followed by an optional box labeled “Access promised, if any.”

Hours after this story was filed, the company’s automated system sent the cardholder its standard text: “Did you ask someone else to pay $100,000? Reply 1 for YES, 2 for NO, or 3 to schedule a meeting with the administration.”