<p>We had a message on our answering machine when we arrived home after a nice birthday visit with my wife’s 91 yr. old mom. The message said, call security re. questionable charges on credit card.
Turns out someone charged over $250 at a store 150 miles from where we live, at a time when I was on a boat fishing and my wife was holding down the fort at our business. Not only was our number used, but an actual counterfeit card was used. We have had this card for a little less than a year, that is all the time it took for it to be compromised. The credit card companies have a hard job ahead if they would like to solve this problem.
Now we are waiting for a replacement card.(This is our miles card for getting our son flights to and from school.They said we would not lose our miles with the closing of this card and the beginning of a new one. I hope that is correct.)
This incident makes us feel a bit insecure, and a lack of confidence in the ability to use a credit card long term without having it compromised.</p>
<p>SIL had some items charged on her card while visiting us. These were items bought in a country she’d never ever visited. But we’d taken her to an ethnic restaurant (and she treated us), so she thinks that the staff who handled her card must have copied the information and made the purchases using her card. She did not lose the card. It was out of her hands for only 10-15 minutes.</p>
<p>I had a good friend that this happened to. She used the card at a local hotel and within a few weeks charges were showing up that she hadn’t made. She had only used it at that hotel. We have a chip in our cards here that needs a password to work at some stores that have the new equipment. The card gets scanned and then they give you the machine and you type in your data away from the clerk’s eyes. I hate it since it is one more password to remember. At restaurants, I carry cash. Do they have the new credit protection system operating in the states now? I was there in the spring and never ran into it.</p>
<p>I think there is a capability out there to produce fake duplicate cards, as well as possibly a lot of complicit sales clerks.</p>
<p>We’ve had a couple of incidents over the years where charges begin to show up and the most recent one had someone making $3000 gift card purchases at upper level boutiques. How you do that without ID, or without confirmation, I don’t know. </p>
<p>The card companies actually don’t seem that interested in getting the crooks, either. They only seem interested in confirming that you didn’t make the charges. Many years ago I had a gasoline card stolen and the company that issued it made a practice of writing your plate number down (it was before self service proliferated). When I got the bill, I saw the crook had altered each writedown of the plate number, but he did it differently each time, which allowed you to discern his plate number. But the company didn’t care about knowing it. I think the losses are factored into the rates and economics as unavoidable costs.</p>
<p>“factored into the rates”</p>
<p>Geez, I can’t afford that.</p>
<pre><code>Now I’m getting emails from my bank, asking me to say “credit” instead of “debit” when I make a purchase with my card. Not doing it. The enticement? A one in five hundred chance to win the amount of the purchase.
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<p>Actually you have a better chance to dispute a charge when you use a credit card compared to a debit card.</p>
<p>According to a presentation I went to recently, the banks are claiming that debit cards are equally secure. I don’t buy it and still won’t use one. I don’t like anyone or anything having direct access to my checking account. I have had someone access my checking account-- and, with the help of the bank and the 2 companies she paid out of my account, we had her name, address, phone # and even a tape recording of her giving my account info to pay her bill. I filed police reports but even the !@#$%% cops in her city wouldnt do anything! She lived in Atlantic City (where I’ve never been, so don’t know how she accessed my account) and I guess they had bigger fish to fry. I dont get it-- it was banking fraud, telephone fraud, you name it. They didn’t/wouldn’t pursue it and neither did the bank. I was not to happy that no oe would go after this criminal.</p>
<p>Jym - don’t know if this is any help - BUT if it crosses state lines the FBI couldget involved…someone stole my husband and 20 other doctors info years ago and opened tons of accounts - local police did not care but when the thief applied for a credit card by mail, it became mail fraud…we only found out the result years later because the FBI agent who handled the case was having surgery , heard a nurse call my dh by name so asked to talk to him - FBI agent told the story…</p>
<p>This happened twice to us. I am pretty sure I even know when the card number was filched. I actually nipped it in the bud then. Place closed shortly thereafter. But, Am Ex did not seem that interested in finding who perpetuated the fraud. The first time around, enormous charges were made on my card (used the number but not my name) but they never found out who did it and I was told that they rarely catch the crooks.</p>
<p>My parents had their car valet parked at a restaurant in NYC and my dad’s cell phone was concealed inside. When they returned the phone was there but mysterious charges started up within days to South America (Columbia, Ecuador). Of course since the phone was not stolen my dad didn’t notice until a $6000 bill showed up. </p>
<p>When he called the phone company, it was obvious it was not him as he lives in Ohio and most of the calls originated from NJ. His usual phone bill was $30 a month over 5 years.</p>
<p>The phone company actually asked my dad to keep the account open to rung a sting operation with the FBI because their was a huge racket in the NYC/NJ area. Apparently, there is a way to steal the chips in the phone and get the info off and either copy the chip or transfer the info and that’s what they had done. (Not exactly sure how it’s done and not sure I want to know).</p>
<p>We never did hear what the result of the sting was but they closed the account a couple of months later after they got what they wanted.</p>
<p>One tip on lost or stolen credit cards: think about whether you have put any kinds of automatic charges on it (i.e., perhaps monthly Netflix). If you have, you’ll have to change that, too. This can even cause a problem when you just get a new card with a new expiration date.</p>
<p>MamaDrama, in your father’s case the cell phone became a stored value instrument for stolen funds. If anyone is interested in how cell phones are being used to legitimately transmit funds, there is an excellent article in the July 2008 issue of USBanker magazine…</p>
<p>Many years ago, at holiday time no less, we got a card from our credit card company regarding some odd looking charges on our account. It seems someone had stolen our # and made fake cards with it! The credit card company WAS going after the people. In fact, they wanted to fly me from the Midwest to CA to testify. At the time I had a toddler and a young one and told them that if I could just make a statement over the phone, that would certainly help me! All they wanted me to say was that I had my credit card in my possession.</p>
<p>Recently, I had a woman call me and say that a strange thing had happened. She got an e-mail from amazon.com with my name and address on it regarding $500 in book purchases that were being shipped to PAKISTAN! So…somehow someone had gotten my card #, ordered books from amazon.com to be shipped to an address other than mine, AND had been able to somehow reroute the e-mail confirmation so it didn’t come to me!! If that lady hadn’t called, it would have been a much bigger mess to unravel. I called amazon.com and took care of it before the books were ever shipped, called the credit card company before there was a false charge, and got a new card. WHEW! What will the crooks think up next!</p>
<p>LTS, thanks for the explo, that makes sense.</p>
<p>I have a new credit card processor. We have to key in the embossed last four digits of the card number which is then verified against the swiped number. Something the credit card companies are doing to deter fraudelent cards. It adds several seconds to the transaction – so there’s a time cost involved also. (MY daily retail newsletter tells me that there’s a very short time wait that’s considered acceptable by the typical customer …)</p>
<p>Thanks, memphismom. Since the bank, the local police here in my home town and the local police in the womans home town all didnt care, I didnt pursue it with the FBI. It would have been more work and time than I had at that time (my mother was dying at that time and I hade more pressing matters to deal with) The police in her home town did tell me she had a criminal record, but that was it. Even though we had a tape recording of her giving my account info to a company, they said in their state they couldnt “make” her talk in court, so they couldnt use the tape as evidence :eek:</p>
<p>My D was out of town over a break when we got a call about odd changes on our card, in the town where she was visiting. I told the CC company my DD was there, but there was no reason she would be charging $200 in clothes on MY card, my card was only for an emergency. I asked them to decline it or hold it whilst i called DD.</p>
<p>DD was searching madly for her purse, some one had broken into the house where she was staying with a dozen college kids and crept upstairs and stolen her purse some time since 11pm the night before and noon that day.</p>
<p>When I called back the CC company said too late, they had to approve the charge as DD was in that town. We called the police there, filed a report, a constable called and told DD they had found her passport, DL, and other personal items, even Christmas checks from grandparents, so that was good. He found DD by calling the phone # on the grandparent check and getting her cell # from grandma!</p>
<p>The store knew it was not her, the CC company had reason to suspect it was not her. The cop from whom she got her stuff thought he knew who it was, we still never heard if they did anything about it.</p>
<p>Very frustrating that these small crimes seem not worth pursuing.</p>
<p>Somemom-
That is odd that the cr card co approved a charge you told them to put in temporary dispute. I’ve had cr cards put a temp hold on use when it was temporarily misplaced with no problem. I hope you didnt pay for the unauthorized charge on your card!</p>
<p>We’ve had to get new credit cards so many times I don’t even keep count any more. About once every year or so we get a call “did you ask for a cash advance in the Philipines? Singapore? Japan? New York? Paris?” We’ve never paid a charge we didn’t make. All our miles are absolutely intact. Just not a problem. </p>
<p>My assumption is always that someone is forging credit cards based on making up the numbers and trying them.</p>
<p>My husband and I run a retail business and I assure you that the credit card companies are NOT the ones paying when a card is used fraudulently. The retailer is out, not only the goods, but the payment as well when a card charge is disputed (in a “card not present” situation, that is–as is the case over the internet and over the phone). AND a $25 “administrative” fee. We have learned to be VERY suspicious of overnight or two-day shipping to certain cities. We try to avoid shipping to mailbox services (like Mailboxes, etc.) because those are commonly used for fraud. Certain kinds of things are also more likely to be fraudulent purchases as well. Think Ebay: if it’s easy to Ebay, someone is trying to buy it using a fraudulent credit card.</p>
<p>Jym, the temp hold was whilst the person was AT THE STORE, it never showed up on the bill, the company is great to work with, but they could not not approve it, I guess :(</p>