23 replies to this topic

[Sentient Being]

My wife stopped at a gas station just an hour ago to buy some gas and the purchase was "denied". When she got home we called the credit card company. We have a fairly high limit and pay the card in full each month...there was no way we had violated a limit. They had spotted some suspicious internet transactions on the card a few hours ago and put the card on hold....so it would no longer function. Someone got our number and experation date and made two purchases at Wallmart on-line and one at "Sam's Club". The credit card company spotted that as unusual activity and put the hold on our card (the only one we have and both carry). So New cards are being sent out, that card is being shut down, we wont have to pay anything on the loss. Our ATM card will serve as a backup until the new cards arrive. Intersting thing, they have to be monitoring the transactions, all transactions, scanning them with a computer designed to spot suspicious activity because you couldn't hire enough humans to track all those transactions on their millions of cards by hand. it's pretty cool really, their computers looking for a clue that someone is abusing your card, then the humans get involved, shut down the card until it can be straightened out. I've got to go to work now. You get that feeling like "I've been robbed", but after awhile you realize you didn't lose anything and it's sort of intersting! Way off topic, I know.

[endisnear]

Go to a restaurant and give your CC to a waiter. All he's got to do is write down your CC # and 4 digit code on it, with exp date and you can go online and use it. Or he can sell the number to someone who will use it in that way. Happened to me as well.

[Tor]

interesting............where were the online products being delivered to? seems easy to catch these people?

[endisnear]

interesting............where were the online products being delivered to? seems easy to catch these people?

PO Box....
Empty homes....

CC cos rarely prosecute.

I had my Chase card # stolen by a hacker in Tokyo. He spent about 7k on electronics.
I travel alot for work and had my CC# stolen by a hotel clerk....CC # stolen by a convenience store clerk.

I only know of the convenience store clerk being prosecuted b/c she was stupid enough to have products ordered online delivered to her house.

[arbman]

It happened to me a few months ago, they spend about $2000, almost even. The card did not have any limit, they could easily spend more.

Anyhow, I must say we had a bunch of lock outs before the incident for spending 5 or 10 bucks at the retail stores or at the middle of our vacations (even after we had called them that we were leaving ahead of time) and on many other occasions, only to get frustrated every time with their customer service.

BUT their computers did not catch 5 wireless phone purchases online from Cingular.com within 3 minutes, they also puchased 8x$200 worth phone card purchases from USPS.com website a few minutes after. They spent the entire money in less than an hour...

Their computers were still asleep until I called them up a few days later and canceled the card...

I only know of the convenience store clerk being prosecuted b/c she was stupid enough to have products ordered online delivered to her house.

This is really funny, but in my case, they were all ordered to some sort of drop boxes within US, actually in different states. It looked very much organized by more than 1 person...

Edited by kisacik, 25 September 2007 - 05:17 PM.

[ed rader]

you we're never robbed....it's visa's money anyway that's why they go to great lengths to protect it. now, visa probably gives all your spending information to the government so they build a profile and make sure you're not funding terrorist organizations but as long as your government is protecting you that's all right ! ed rader

[TTHQ Staff]

While visiting in Luxembourg a few years back, I accidentally left a debit/credit card at a bar. I called back later that night and they said they didn't have it. I figured I'd report it as lost/stolen when I got back to the states-- since no one knew my PIN I figured I was safe. I thought no one could use it. I didn't realize it at the time as I had never activated it as a credit card, but the thieves didn't need to activate it as a credit card to use it as one. They spent over $7K in 2 weeks. The funny thing was there was an international delay and even after I returned home and canceled the card, for another week the charges still kept racking up. Someone from my cc company actually had the nerve to call me to attempt to verify that the charges were mine. "Are you sure you didn't spend some of that yourself and forgot about it?" they asked. Even as the charges were made while I was back in the states. Took they guy a while to realize I can't be in a bar in Luxembourg while taking a phone call from him in Ohio. In the end I had to pay $50 for not reporting the card stolen in a timely manner.

[Sentient Being]

interesting............where were the online products being delivered to? seems easy to catch these people?

I have no clue where the stuff was going to. Of course it hasn't shown up on a bill or anything yet. The girl I was talking to at first was apparently from India. It took quite awhile to figure out that the card was put on hold by them because they had seen suspicous activity. The poor girl was trying to communicate but the language barrier was almost too great for her. So much for outsourcing. Just figuring out the basics of why my card was not working was an effort. Finally they transfered me to some sort of a fraud dept and they were good english speakers. After that we were able to get them to kill the card and issue a new one.

Yeah, it's not my money that's lost. It's all of our money, we all pay for it in the end.

[TTHQ Staff]

Yeah, it's not my money that's lost. It's all of our money, we all pay for it in the end.

That's the sad fact. They spread their losses across ALL of us.

[pdx5]

My Citi card stopped one of MY OWN purchases from Wal-Mart for a computer (a cheap $400 model) because it looked suspicious to them! The CC company never called me or anything. I found out when Wal-Mart sent me an email saying order was cancelled. Anyways I got it all straightened out and got my Everex PC with Windows Vista and a 17" LCD flat monitor for $400+ S&H. As many transactions as we make between me and the wife, it is a miracle no one has stolen the CC number. And we eat out a lot and hand the CC to the waiters. Just lucky I guess.