Credit Card Fraud

[Electro Funk]

DAMN THEM! twice... and 2 different cards...

years ago i was traveling in eastern europe and had a credit card number stolen... they charged 13 grand to one of my cards... long story short, account was closed and investigation was started... they obviously never found anyone...

Got another call tonight from a different card... someone got me again...

this was a mastercard that i havent used in a couple of years... $600 and the fraud dept was ringing my cell... yet another account closed and another investigation started!

Anyone else have this happen to them? Twice nonetheless?

What a hassle...

 

[fitinferno]

DAMN THEM! twice... and 2 different cards...

years ago i was traveling in eastern europe and had a credit card number stolen... they charged 13 grand to one of my cards... long story short, account was closed and investigation was started... they obviously never found anyone...

Got another call tonight from a different card... someone got me again...

this was a mastercard that i havent used in a couple of years... $600 and the fraud dept was ringing my cell... yet another account closed and another investigation started!

Anyone else have this happen to them? Twice nonetheless?

What a hassle...

Ouch...sorry to hear of the unfortunate luck. Do you've any idea how the card number got lifted and only used now if you've not used it for so long?

Scary to think what kind of information stores are allowed to get on you if you want to pay by something as simple as credit card. One deviant and damn.

On a side-note related to this topic, it's odd you can get carded in the US for alcohol even when you're 57 but the people at the tills when you buy stuff will not even touch your credit card sometimes, let alone make sure the signatures match up.

 

[Electro Funk]

Ouch...sorry to hear of the unfortunate luck. Do you've any idea how the card number got lifted and only used now if you've not used it for so long?

No idea... i was wondering the same thing... i have the card... havent had a balance on it in a long time... that is why they called so quick when someone started using it... (All internet transactions)

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

That is why when traveling one should notify the CC company of where you are traveling for which days and such. Same goes when you know when you are purchasing something over the web that may go through another country.

I have a note placed on my accounts that request verification for any overseas purchase. And I give them a courtesy call when buying over the phone or the web here in the US.

 

[Abstract]

I never understood how some people walk around with no cash and tell me that they just pay with their credit card. I feel safer with cash. At least if I were to ever get held up and robbed, I know how my money disappeared.

 

[dops7107]

I recently travelled to the States and was amazed by how lax the whole credit card system is over there. Admittedly, it is much like the UK was two years ago - you just sign your signature, and it may or may not be checked. The system is incredibly open to fraud. I note that many retailers have electronic signature pads - presumably this is so the credit card company can have a permanent record of a dodgy signature, but this is worthless if the purchaser/thief can take the goods away. The biggest problem was the printing of full credit card details on receipts... that's just asking for trouble.

Here we now have chip n' PIN - you have to enter a PIN to confirm a transaction. For the casual card thief/pickpocket, this renders most credit cards useless - at least giving you enough time to phone up the company to cancel before they can jump on the internet. The internet is still the source of most card fraud.

Best you can do? Keep as few cards as possible. Never let them out of your sight. Destroy all receipts with full card details on. Chip's advice is sound too. The good news is you rarely have to cough up for fraud on your credit card - it's a hassle, sure, but you are covered (hence, Abstract, it's still safer to have credit cards than cash). We all end up paying eventually though.

 

[Abstract]

My mum's number was stolen several times. Last time was 2 years ago. It took several months to convince the credit card company that it was theft, and get their money back. I think it took around 3-4 months. In the end, the hassle was worth more than the effort.

And I really do think carrying around cash is safer. Credit card fraud is much easier than pickpocketing because it's so incredibly easy. More and more people are going that route because of ease. All you have to protect you in Canada is a signature. That's hysterical when you think about it, because this "security" step is just an illusion. It doesn't really work. The entire system almost works on honour system or something.

@dops7107: If all CCs had a PIN attached to them, then yes, credit cards are much safer, but right now, there's practically no security when it comes to credit cards (where I'm from). Actually, I never understood why credit cards didn't have a PIN. It's not like it's a new idea, and I can't logically think of a reason not to have it implemented. It would save the cc companies money if there are less cc thefts or fraud cases to sort through.

If you go to a restaurant to pay with CC, you give the waitress your credit card and they walk away to swipe. To me, that just screams "stupidity", but we do it all the time. All a waiter/waitress ever has to do is take down the number, and buying things isn't exactly difficult at some online stores since there's no PIN.
I do use my credit card a lot (around $40000 over the past 5 years, and I'm a student with little income), but I don't use it in many unsafe situations.

 

[hofnar]

I had this happen to me too, but with my debit card. It didnt work the same, and I didnt get all of my money back.

The person ordered all the stuff and had it sent to my house, and all of it was non refundable. Makeup, teeth whitener, Blockbuster.

Perhaps they were telling me I'm ugly?

 

[Nickygoat]

That is why when traveling one should notify the CC company of where you are traveling for which days and such. Same goes when you know when you are purchasing something over the web that may go through another country.

I have a note placed on my accounts that request verification for any overseas purchase. And I give them a courtesy call when buying over the phone or the web here in the US.

That's good advice, but it doesn't always work. I went to France for the day with my dad to buy wine (they live near one of the ports so it's an easy trip), and he phoned the CC company in the morning and told them we were going, and would be making a lot of high value purchases, in a short space of time. They thanked him and made a note of it.
First time he uses it - "Sorry it's been refused. Do you have another card?". Then my mum phones us, saying the CC company had phoned her and asked about it. She told them, and said we had already informed them. Their response? "Oh I wondered what that note on your file was about". Tw@

 

[Electro Funk]

I do use my credit card a lot (around $40000 over the past 5 years, and I'm a student with little income), but I don't use it in many unsafe situations.

i hope you have paid most of this off?

or did you mean $4000 ?

 

[floriflee]

If I'm not using a credit card I'll cancel it, and I only keep a max of one or two cards in my wallet. That reduces the risk of old card numbers being found and used. Also, I keep a spreadsheet of my CC numbers and the phone numbers of the CC companies in the event that I need to report a lost/stolen card. It's much faster than having to go through all my different records to track down that info.

My dad also made a good suggestion to his kids a couple of weeks ago. By law you are entitled to one free credit report from each of the credit agencies every year. Because a lot of the information is generally the same from each credit agency, rather than get all three reports at once, spread out the requests over the year. For example, he requests one report from one agency at the beginning of the year and then requests another report from the next agency after four months. Over a one year period he can check his report at three different times (four month intervals) for free.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Never happened to me, but I make a living off people who are defrauded.
Cancel the cards and run that credit report of yours every 6 months. If you're in the US you get a free credit report once a year. If you've been a victim of fraud you get a free one every 6 months. Even if you didn't get it for free you should run it every 6 months. I know I do.

 

[UKnjb]

I hope that this is not taking the thread off-topic, and am sorry for everyone who has been de-frauded. i have also been skimmed of £1000 once during an identity-theft fraud. It all got sorted - I was contacted by my bank and alerted about the suspect transaction - but the police were useless and I still don't know if the perps ever got arrested or anything.

i am VERY apprehensive of internet fraud and misuse of credit cards and am being nervous over something I have just done today. Which is strange, as I have posted numerous times on MR about security and related items. Even to stating how I don't use internet banking and stuff. Including having a separate credit card for internet transactions (having a low £300) upper limit.

I have bought some stuff from geeks.com, paying for it on-line with my credit card. However, I noticed during the steps to check-out that they did not use a secure server and just started wondering. How necessary are secure servers to prevent fraud? Any comments from anyone? They would be appreciated.

 

[mannix87]

as much as possible I avoid using cards with a high credit limit over the internet. that's why I have reserved one of my cards w/ a low credit limit for this purpose . the idea of course, is that even if any of identity theft takes place w/ this card, it wouldn't hurt me that much.

 

[paleck]

I recently travelled to the States and was amazed by how lax the whole credit card system is over there. Admittedly, it is much like the UK was two years ago - you just sign your signature, and it may or may not be checked. The system is incredibly open to fraud. I note that many retailers have electronic signature pads - presumably this is so the credit card company can have a permanent record of a dodgy signature, but this is worthless if the purchaser/thief can take the goods away. The biggest problem was the printing of full credit card details on receipts... that's just asking for trouble.

Here we now have chip n' PIN - you have to enter a PIN to confirm a transaction. For the casual card thief/pickpocket, this renders most credit cards useless - at least giving you enough time to phone up the company to cancel before they can jump on the internet. The internet is still the source of most card fraud.

Best you can do? Keep as few cards as possible. Never let them out of your sight. Destroy all receipts with full card details on. Chip's advice is sound too. The good news is you rarely have to cough up for fraud on your credit card - it's a hassle, sure, but you are covered (hence, Abstract, it's still safer to have credit cards than cash). We all end up paying eventually though.

I think it depends on the state, but at least in my state they changed the laws to prohibit printing the full credit card details on the receipt...just enough to identify it when you go to put it in your accounting program. Of course it is funny that even with that law on the books, there are still quite a few retailers that still print the full number on the receipt.

 

[miniConvert]

I never understood how some people walk around with no cash and tell me that they just pay with their credit card. I feel safer with cash. At least if I were to ever get held up and robbed, I know how my money disappeared.

Though that cash is then gone for good. The CC companies I use would not, to the best of my knowledge, hold me liable for fraudulent usage of my account.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Never happened to me, but I make a living off people who are defrauded.
Cancel the cards and run that credit report of yours every 6 months. If you're in the US you get a free credit report once a year. If you've been a victim of fraud you get a free one every 6 months. Even if you didn't get it for free you should run it every 6 months. I know I do.

As one that has been through credit card fraud, what are the rules on this?