Credit Card Fraud

[PessOptimist]

On Friday I made four credit card purchases.

Arizona Dept of Environmental Quality, Arizona Dept of Motor Vehicles, a local car wash and Lowes.

On Friday afternoon I got a call from Citi about a possible fraudulant charge. The charge-purchase was made by phone and the person trying to make the purchase apparently forgot to write down the correct expiration date triggering the call. Stupid perp, if the date had been correct they would have gotten away with it.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I am not happy with Citi about the rate increases etc. for customers in good standing blah, blah, blah; I may or may not change. Hold all those thoughts/comments.

Their fraud department appears to be doing a pretty good job. Today I got another call, someone had the card "checked" ?? at an Apple store and later tried to buy about $2k worth of stuff at Home Depot.

I closed the account.

Who stole the number and from where? Probably never know. That person will likely never get caught.

Does Citi care? Not if it cost them nothing. Would the AZ attorney general care? No. Would AZDEQ, AZDMV, Lowes or the car wash care? No.

My point?

Be as careful as you can.

Use credit cards or cash. If this had been a debit card number and PIN, I would be out the money. Cash doesn't work well in this day and age as the AZDEQ/AZDMV cost was over $200. I don't carry that much cash usually. Use the credit card like a debit card, don't spend more thatn you can pay for. Yeah, yeah, I know Citi gets rich off of this. Post it somewhere else.

Actually look at you credit card bills before paying them.

[nasa1974]

I had a similar problem last summer. My daughter takes a phone call from Lands End about a purchase made over the internet, I wasn't home at the time (a Tuesday afternoon). I get home and called the number given to my daughter. Lands End was checking on a purchase that was done over the internet and being sent to Washington State, I live in Ohio, and they wanted to know if I made the purchase. I told them that I had not made a recent purchase from Lands End. I was able to get a phone number that was left with Lands End. I went on line to check and then called Visa (Bank of America) and found out that there had been three other purchases on my card. Visa immediately closed my account. I gave them the phone number I had gotten from Lands End and started to figure out how my card had been compromised. The only time the card had been out of my possession was the previous Saturday when I took the family out to dinner. This was the first time in two months that the card was out of my control. I called the restaurant and told the manager what had happened and said I wasn't accusing any of her employees but it was the first time in months that the card had been out of control.
Now if I make a large purchase on the Visa I get a phone call from BofA checking on the purchase.
PessOptimist you are correct in saying always check your bill before paying.

[tsptalk]

I say give 10-20 year minimum sentences for first offenses on credit card fraud / identity theft. Life for a second. Let's see if buying a shirt from Land's End is worth the risk to these scum bags.

[nnuut]

One thing, I think that credit cards should not have your account number printed on the card for everyone to see. NOW that very few or none of the businesses need to swipe the card and sent the receipt out by snail mail they don't need it on the card. They should give you your account number separately and waitresses or checkers never see your number unless they have special access to view it if there is a problem.
A 20 year sentence in the slammer with Big Bubba would also be appropriate.

[Silverbird]

Well, it's technically wire theft, and if I remember that has a pretty stiff sentence? Plus, I would think the inter-state commerce laws come into play since the Credit card company, you and the business you are dealing with aren't in the same state?

[Steadygain]

On Friday afternoon I got a call from Citi about a possible fraudulant charge. Actually look at you credit card bills before paying them.

Someone got access to my acccount. Way back when we first set it up we had it so Savings would replenish Checking if ever needed... and forgot we even did that.

So our unknown friend eventually took everything we had in both Checking and Savings.

I share this mainly to stress -- that having and maintaining excellent Credit and flawless transactions over many years will result in overwhelming benefits. Our Bank - JP Morgan (CHASE) immediately reimbursed us for every penny and assured us that they would have more power and ability to get the one respondisible that us taking our own legal action.

Looking at the bills --- my wife is Obsessive Compulsive --- she looks at every transaction ... always has and always will

I say give 10-20 year minimum sentences for first offenses on credit card fraud / identity theft. Life for a second. Let's see if buying a shirt from Land's End is worth the risk to these scum bags.

This would seem like a very excellent and practical solution.

Somehow -- the System sees this as more of a mild annoyance because they have so successfully 'ripped off' everyone over the years.

[tsptalk]

I just heard a story from my wife that one of her customers had her card number stolen (and they maxed out her card soon after) when she gave the number to someone over a cell phone. Apparently scammers are intercepting cell phone calls and recording the numbers. Just beware. Use a land line if possible when giving your number over the phone.

[alevin]

one reason I haven't given up my landline yet. Even tho i do most purchases on the internet these days. And the biggest cc problem I've had in the past few years was a slamming charge from some travel company I allowed myself to listen to their pitch while I was put on hold completing a phone catalog purchase. Never again.

I didn't agree to buy anything but for 3 years after, I was hit with a once-a-year membership fee of some kind that I had to dispute with the cc company. First year I didn't spot it on the bill til after I'd paid, 2d year I disputed and the charges were dropped, 3d year I talked to the fraud dept. they sent me confusing paperwork about where I "lost" my card (I didn't!)-I never completed the paperwork and eventuallly the cc company rebilled and I gave up and paid.

this past year the fraud vigilantes must have finally caught up with the outfit, I've had no charges from the outlaws in over a year, but I still review the bill very very closely every month now.

There was never a phone # provided to contact the "company" on the bill, and they changed their name at least once but left residual similarity in the new name. I had to cancel cc at least once and have a new # issued to get away from the slamming. Check out "Ripoff Report.com" online whenever you're having a weird billing problem with some bogus company. That site clued me in what/who I was dealing with for my problem when I had it.

[tsptalk]

10 Places NOT to Use Your Debit Card

"It's important that consumers understand the difference between a debit card and a credit card," says John Breyault, director of the Fraud Center for the National Consumers League, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. "There's a difference in how the transactions are processed and the protections offered to consumers when they use them."

More

[alevin]

http://www.darkreading.com/insiderth...Y_2010-03-15_h

Small Businesses, Banks Wrestle With Security Issues

[QUOTE]Banks frequently fail to detect online fraud before funds are gone, Ponemon study says

If online banking is a blessing for small and midsize businesses, then it could also be a security curse, according to a study published earlier this week.
According to a study conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Guardian Analytics, SMBs are becoming increasingly frustrated by breaches that occur through the banking system, as well as the banks' inability to detect or rectify them. In the survey, 55 percent of SMBs reported experiencing fraud in the past 12 months, with 58 percent of fraud enabled by online banking activities. Eighty percent of banks failed to catch fraud before funds were transferred out of their institutions, Ponemon says.

While many small businesses assume banks will restore funds lost in online hacks, the survey paints a different picture. In 87 percent of fraud attacks, the bank was unable to fully recover the lost assets, Ponemon says. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents that have experienced a fraud attack said they were not fully compensated by their banks. Twenty-six percent were not compensated for any part of their losses.

Such incidents could not only cause a loss of business for the banks, but they also can incur legal costs, Austin observes. He pointed to recent lawsuits in which companies sued their banks for failing to provide compensation, or banks that sued customers for failing to take proper steps to secure their transactions.[/QUOTE]

This comes at a time when banks are pushing their credit card customers very hard to agree to cut off paper statements, and require the customers to go online each month to get a "paperless statement." This supposedly "saves the environment," as the wonderfully civic-minded folks at the bank might say, but it also removes a monthly reminder to pay your credit card bill, and makes it more likely that the bank will have an excuse to raise your interest rate to 30% so that they'll have more money to pay themselves million dollar bonuses.
Now, thanks to this survey on online banking fraud, there's an even more important reason not to end your paper statements.

http://www.generationaldynamics.com/...=ww2010.weblog

I'm a fuddy duddy, still do paper banking and cc payments. Probably will until I have no choice anymore.

[KevinD]

Secrets of a Former Credit Card Thief

DeFelippi faced eight years in prison, but under a plea deal he agreed to community service and to pay back more than $200,000 in restitution. He also worked for the U.S. Secret Service, helping to infiltrate the online underground and training agents in the latest fraud techniques. His help led to the arrests of five to 15 people over two years. Today, he's a Web developer at a graphic design company in Rochester, N.Y. He agreed to take an hour with CreditCards.com to share his story and his top tips on how to protect yourself.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-bud...bb-creditcards