<p>Have you ever heard of a Credit Card Fraud thief randomly generating a credit card number and then the number works? This is a new one to me. I am not even sure I believe it. What do you think?</p>
<p>This is from the daily police report summary from the college my daughter attends.</p>
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<p>I dont know about random numbers - but sometimes when
i am confirming an order online or on the phone-the idiot light goes on because
I read the # incorrectly- ( they are so hard to read):o - and a while ago I noticed an odd POS sale in New Jersey ( where I have never been)- when I called the bank- we surmised that it was an onsite sale at a Home Show type event- & without electronic card readers- the clerk had written the # down wrong and it just happened to be mine. They reversed the charge. Normally though- I think fora random number to actually be valid, they would need a device to generate the numbers because most wouldn’t be valid.</p>
<p>The algorithm for valid numbers is well known; for an example, see [Anatomy</a> of Credit Card Numbers](<a href=“merriampark.com”>merriampark.com) Since the 1st 6 numbers are the same for a given bank, once a thief has a valid combination for those they can probably try randomly generating the rest and put on a valid last digit (used for checking the 1st 15)</p>
<p>I had no idea that the process was similar for credit cards as for checks- I guess it makes sense though- I wouldn’t never make a good thief- I have no imagination.</p>
<p>Thanks mikemac
This shows that no matter how careful I think I have been with my credit cards, I need to read the bills very very carefully!</p>
<p>We thought this might have happened three weeks ago with son’s ATM card. The number was used as a credit card. Last week an identical charge appeared with the number from the new card. So now I think that perhaps the number was stollen from a receipt.<br>
It was caught both times within hours of the false charge because son is always checking the activity on the account.</p>