<p>D and I spent a long time last night going through the offerings at ABEbooks (an aggregator of used book sellers) to select 8 used textbooks that were in decent condition and significantly cheaper than the new versions offered at her college bookstore. She’s a senior, and we’ve done this every semester, with no problems. This morning I woke up to an automated telephone call from the fraud protection folks at Amex asking me to verify that one of the purchases was valid. I did, then looked at my email to discover notifications from ABEbooks that the remaining 7 Amex charges had all been declined due to possible fraud! </p>
<p>I called Amex and was assured that since I had okayed one of the purchases, they would go through okay if resubmitted; then called ABEbooks (very nice and helpful) and we were able to refill my virtual shopping cart with the 7 books, at which point I re-submitted the order. No one at Amex could explain why these purchases were flagged for fraud–you would think the purchase of $270 in used books would hardly suggest my card had been stolen, particularly in light of the fact that my typical monthly bill runs in the thousands. The woman at the bookseller thought the fact they were in Canada might have been the source of the problem, but they were in always Canada, so I don’t see why that was suddenly a red flag. Anyway, I guess I should be comforted that Amex is on the alert, but if their system pounces on something as innocuous as my transaction, I’m not feeling that good.</p>
<p>A card company may flag international or out of area transactions that for some reason do not appear to the card company to be web or mail order.</p>
<p>Also, if it is an aggregator, the charges may have all come separately from the different actual sellers, which may somehow trigger the suspicion alerts at the card company.</p>
<p>mommaj that happened to me with an amazon order… it was one order but multiple sellers …so despite being one charged it showed about 10 purchases all at once.</p>
<p>I had the opposite. When I used my credit card in Costa Rica without any problems or red flags, it made me very uncomfortable. I’d rather they be overly cautious than the opposite. </p>
<p>Good job though on the textbooks for that price lol</p>
<p>Yeah, “erratic” is the way I’d describe it. We stick with one card for most of our CC purchases, in part because our charges never get questions. (We’ve never had fraud on that card obviously.) Other cards are, um, different. We had one card challenge an in-town charge at an establishment we frequent … and three days latter approve a large cash advance in a state 1,300 miles away. Since we never take cash advances, it seemed very odd one would be approved. In another case a different CC company questioned a small purchase made on Friday, another small purchase made on Sunday, and a third small purchase on Monday … maybe $80 total. After fielding the third call I asked the ‘Security Agent’ if I could have her number so I could call her each time I made a purchase with the card. Security Alert calls immediately ceased. Something I said???</p>
<p>Amex can be somewhat arbitrary about things I’ve noticed. One time they declined a (somewhat expensive) NY hotel from running my reservation. Fortunately they held the room and when I arrived I was able to call and confirm with Amex. The Amex rep basically told me that “I should call whenever I travel”…yeah right why would they deny one of 100 hotel rooms arbitrarily. Another time, we got a late night call from Amex about a random on-line purchase we had made. Again, totally arbitrary…sometimes they call, sometimes they deny and many times they do not. I’m not complaining as I’d rather they check than not check, but it can be aggravating having to explain to the merchant or call Amex while they are standing there handing you the phone.</p>
<p>I got a phone call the other day from Amex telling me about a $700 purchase at Costco and asking if it was legit. MY husband had gone to Costco to buy new tires so I assumed that was what they were calling about and I okayed it. But after I hung up, I called him just to make sure. He said that he had handed the guy his Amex card but the transaction hadn’t been rung up yet because they were still discussing some additional fees for tire rotation or something. He couldn’t believe that Amex was that fast!</p>
<p>Barnes & Noble. com was the retailer who noticed that my CC had been compromised after a video game was purchased & scheduled to be sent to FL. Only a $60 charge, but it wasn’t made by me. Not quite sure what the algorithm is that picks up these things, but I was thankful that it was caught.</p>
<p>Last Saturday my husband spent $60 at our neighborhood Walmart and the Discover fraud people called to ask me if it was legit. I thought it was so funny since it is the closest Walmart to my house and I shop there all the time, but afterwards I wondered if they track our habits so closely that they know we wouldn’t normally shop at 8am on a Saturday morning (we were up early to move some furniture to our son)? If so, that’s kinda spooky!</p>
<p>We have just moved back to NYC. I ordered some take out from a restaurant next door, asked D2 to pick it up, meanwhile I ordered some sheets online for D2. AmEx fraud detection was alerted because frequency of use.</p>
<p>I ordered some nice wine online, on the same day I walked by a neighborhood wine store and decided to pick up a bottle of table wine, my transaction was declined (frequency of use or detection of too much wine drinking).</p>
<p>I signed up for Zipcar, booked/paid for two reservations, one of them was declined because of frequency of use again.</p>
<p>All of those triggers have happened in the last few months. My guess is that AmEx has recently implemented a new fraud detection software, and it is giving them too many false positives. I have told AmEx that if it continued, I would stop using my AmEx.</p>
<p>When I was traveling, one of my CCs would be declined & then I’d switch to another which was fine. Never could figure out rhyme or reason for the declines that would happen with no particular notice and after I had already alerted them that we were traveling. Very odd. At least we had back up CCs & cash & checks, but it was surprising to us. The charge amounts were fairly low & we generally charge several thousand $$/month as well, so I was surprised about the declines.</p>
<p>Learned last year when we had some fishy charges on a card that the fraudulent users will typically make a small charge to Walmart or some other common merchant to see if it goes through. Once it does, they’ll charge a couple or few hundred dollars - in our case, Bed Bath and Beyond. When they called to ask if we had a $15 charge to Walmart, I just assumed D had used the card when she got back to school. When they called to see if any of us had charged a few hundred dollars to BBB in a state a couple thousand miles away, I knew something was up. D was on a school camping trip - unless she had run away and was setting up housekeeping far away, which would really have been out of character for her. I then had to file an affidavit to recover the small Walmart charge. It did leave me with the feeling that I was being watched (by the CC company) and that CC fraud is easy to perpetrate.</p>
<p>Had very strange charge last May–for a hotel we had stayed in several years ago (2006 only). They said we had made reservations but never showed up. I said we did NOT make any reservations for that hotel and did NOT use that credit card (which was one we rarely EVER used anyway). I said we had no confirmation of having made that reservation EVER sent to any of us & we had other reservations for that same city at a different hotel, where we had planned to & did stay, so why would we want multiple reservations for varying hotels covering the same nights? I also had to complete a form to contest & the charges were ultimately taken off by the hotel (otherwise the CC company was ready to do so as well). Very surprised to have that charge against the CC & had the CC company cancel the card & re-issue us a new one.</p>
<p>We were also charged by a local car rental for a flat tire. We asked them to please send us documentation so we could send it to the CC company, which would cover it. They documentation they sent did not meet the criteria required by the CC company & we could not get the car rental folks to return our calls. We ultimately told the CC company to just contest that charge that was assessed without our consent anyway. That charge was really irritating that we couldn’t get the rental car company to provide the requested documentation about the “flat tire” and “repair.” Decided we likely will never use that company again. :(</p>
<p>One thing that will flag a fraud alert is going to the gas station, then to a big box store. When someone is using a stolen card it is common to try at a station because it will tell them if the card is active and it generally authorizes for only $1. The next tactic is to either go to a big box store or hit the mall buying gift cards. So a lot of fraud alerts go off for large school shopping or Black Friday purchases.</p>
<p>I guess it was our fault for not alerting them but when doing study abroad my S’s Amex was denied when he tried to purchase a trip with an amazing deal from Groupon. By the time they verified the charges the window for purchasing was closed. Bummer.</p>
<p>My husband still teases me about the fraud call that turned out to be me shopping on a very efficient shopping day…“they said you bought three pairs of shoes in three different stores in less than 30 minutes”. Yes, and no thanks for calling my house and telling on me!</p>
<p>Our worst experience with a card being denied was our first trip to MD Anderson. We had had an uber uber stressful 2 weeks filled with doctors visits, tests, scans, biopsies, a suspected heart attack, hospitalization, angiogram, stage 3 cancer diagnosis, and culminating with the news that my husband now had a blood clot in his lung. Oncologist prescribed a horrendously expensive blood thinner as the blood clot happened while alredy on the cheap stuff (warfarin). Went to pick it up at the MDA pharmacy and the credit card was denied (I knew it was no where near maxed out). Of course the battery on my cell was dying as I tried to sort it out. And the computer that was questioning me kept going in a circle. I was about to scream. Finally got a live person who quickly sorted it out. I guess it was a pretty big charge (over $2,000) but aaaaaahhhh!.</p>
<p>Got picked for a survey and had a LOT to say.</p>
<p>It’s an algorithm but also can have a lot to do with current fraud patterns in your area or with certain marketers. (Was it WalMart or Target that had its database hit?) </p>
<p>What realllly bugs me, is when they leave a message and all the person says is “card services” is calling about a possible “issue.” I always presume the worst- phishing. Have to go find a bill with the main number and call in through the robot system. But, I am very grateful for their alertness.</p>
<p>We ran into something to mention: D1 was headed for Europe for several months. On the way to the airport, asked us to let the bank know she’d use her card there. DH is on the account with her, but it turned out that, at our bank, the cardholder has to place the call. Luckily the nice branch lady went to bat for us, but it was a hassle. So, plan accordingly.</p>
<p>Sorry about your experience, SCM. Awful time for that.</p>
lol</p>