<p>My D lives/goes to school in Washington DC. Around Christmas someone charged $600 on her credit card at Macy’s in Arlington for gift cards. The credit card was never out of her possession. Macy’s claims the card was presented for the sale. The signature is just a scribble. This is a MasterCard, not a store card. She has been working to get this cleared up since early January. She has just written one more letter stating that this was not her debt, I think this was three times now that the credit card company has asked for one.</p>
<p>What does she have to do to get this taken care of? Whose burden of proof is it? It just happened to be on the day of the week that her internship was a half day so she cannot have proof that she wasn’t there. She can only show that she used the card two hours later near her apartment, which would not be possible using the Metro and the bus.</p>
<p>This happened to me but the purchase was made in Hawaii and I was in NY and had used my card that day. I tried to get it straightened out but they insisted the card was presented. It was only for $15 though and I cancelled the card and paid it
as it wasn’t worth my time.</p>
<p>This scenerio is possible: someone presented a card that the machine had a hard time reading so the cashier punched in the numbers and got them wrong. I’d ask about that.</p>
<p>However, keep up the fight. I wish I had an answer for you.</p>
<p>This type of thing happened to me, but my credit card company caught it. I was out of state, and used my credit card at a store. Someone used my credit card number (I had my credit card, so nobody else could have presented it) to purchase $400 in gift cards at this store. I have never used this credit card to purchase store gift cards in the past. For whatever reason, the alarm bells sounded, and the credit card’s fraud department called my home a few days later. By that time I was back home from my trip, so I was able to speak with them. I was never charged for the $400. Sorry that I do not have answers to question. I would definitely fight the $600 in charges if I did not make them!!</p>
<p>I recall seeing a segment on the TV news that they had busted a criminal ring that was manufacturing fake credit cards. I am hopeful that the security on the magnetic strips and such has improved, but this ring was mass producing fake cards with stolen IDs. I’d cancel the card and open a new account if I were your daughter – and still fight the charge. She might need to file a police report too, though its been a few months, but still may protect her should they try again to use her identity.</p>
<p>This sounds like a counterfeited card. When they tell you that the card was presented, just tell them back that that means nothing. They should go through their surveillance videos to get a picture of the person that passed the card.</p>
<p>I really like the Discover Card feature of one-time only credit-card numbers. I think that we need something similar for everyday credit card use. I also noticed that Discover Card now requires entry of my zip code for gasoline purchases at the pump. It’s a pain (especially when it’s cold) but it seems like there is so much fraud out there that they have to do something.</p>
<p>Considering counterfeit cards and employee fraud and employee mistakes and a card misread by the machine, there are a lot of ways your account could have been charged for a charge that you didn’t make. Cancel the card, keep writing those letters, check your credit report to make sure they haven’t put it on your record and contest it if they did. </p>
<p>It is so hard to prove a negative–but they have to prove the positive and I would ask them to show you any tapes available so that you can show that the person doing the charging is not you. How closely do they check the IDs , which they would have done if the Master Card is used?</p>
<p>I would guess that it’s easier to create a fake id than it is to make a counterfeit credit card so asking to check the id wouldn’t necessarily guarantee the validity of the charge. I can imagine the day when there’s a fingerprint scanner at the register when you go to make a charge. A lot of laptops already come with fingerprint scanners (one of mine has it and it’s nice not to have to enter my password) so the technology is already out there and it’s inexpensive.</p>