“My husband watches our charge cards like a hawk. He’s caught those ‘small charge’ instances a few times. Some gas station purchases in Detroit one time. Something else another time from somewhere in TX. Small stuff. Like cigarettes or snack food.”
Don’t all of you go through your credit card statements and compare back to receipts so you know all charges are legit?? That just seems like Basic Money Mgt 101.
@Pizzagirl – I do not retain receipts for many things: gas, groceries, hair cuts, dining…consumables, I guess you could say, but I do log on to each account every couple of days and scan the posted and pending charges to confirm their accuracy.
A charge from an e-cig retailer appeared as pending on one card but never moved to posted. When I noticed a pending charge from a green juicer on the same card, I contacted the fraud dept. Card issuer assumed someone was attempting to verify if the card was real. Same card had a $300 charge blocked by their charge dept. The card has now been reissued twice and I do not know why it is the one that keeps being violated.
Re: #81
Perhaps one of your regular merchants that you use the card at has been cracked, but the merchant has not noticed. Or the card issuer itself has been cracked.
@ucbalumnus – I am not sure. The first two charges that I noticed that never moved from pending to processed were not that many weeks apart. The next one that the issuer caught was nine months later. My boys each have this card in their own names but same #, but they only use it to buy gas and haircuts, perhaps some dining out. Very low volume usage and I should get rid of it but I have had it since 1988.
A skimmer could have been put on the pay at the pump reader at the fuel station.
Yes…except we go to full serve gas stations! NYC Subway ticket machine perhaps an option also. It is just interesting that same issuer was caught again nine months later after new #s were issued. Will continue to keep an eye on it…
I check the credit card statements every single month for accuracy. Every month!
Perhaps there is an inside job at the full serve station, or the reader that the full serve attendant used was cracked.
I am bringing this back up because - yesterday I was on my credit card website (Fidelity just switched from Amex to Visa) and I noticed they had a section on “alerts” which allowed me to get a text message any time a transaction is authorized in excess of $xxx (I set it at the $1.00 minimum) and a separate alert for “card not present” so I get a text message for any transaction made without the card, like by phone or online. I think it’s a nice feature and gives me a little peace of mind. I used the card yesterday and got a text message within a minute.
Can’t wait until I go out to dinner, pay the bill, and before I leave ask the waiter why he ran the bill through twice. 
^Some of my cards have that feature. Well, technically, the feature is through the app, not texting. I get a notification on my smartphone. …I wish they all did…
Similar stuff for my bank accounts too.
My amex alerts me when the card is not present (plus they also notify me if they suspect fraud), which are the most common kinds of fraud for obvious reasons. If merchants had totally switched to the readers that can read the embedded chip fake cards like that would be next to impossible to use, but a lot of venders still don’t have them. Unfortunately, I don’t think my main visa has the alerts for use, and I especially wish the card attached to my trading account had the notify feature (I don’t use that card much, the same way I rarely use my bank card as a credit card).
Lots of explanations here about credit card fraud from the consumer’s point of view. Our biz sells a lot online–which means “card not present” sales. In “card not present” sales (internet sales, pretty much), the retailer who accepts the fraudulent charge is out the money PLUS a penalty. Not the credit card issuer, who may have approved the card initially. Anyone accepting online payments has methods for handling potentially fraudulent charges.
Most cards are not physically stolen or even taken by direct handling. However, that doesn’t mean you should be careless in your handling of your card.
I check the activity on our credit card (we only use one) every morning using the online banking system. I never did see the charge that caused our bank to cancel our cards and send us new ones, just a few weeks ago. But they did.
I’ve had my cards replaced due to fraudulent charges and in some cases they charged me then gave me a credit (so I saw it on my bill) and others I never saw it on my bill. But I’ve also had it where they replaced a card simply because it may have been compromised. So no charges were actually made, they were just being proactive – so of course, nothing appeared on my bill.