Fraudulent charges on credit card

[Shoopy]

First let me say that I''m really impressed and happy with how American Express handled the situation.

This particular card is a charge card (pay off balance at the end of the month). I am the primary account holder with two cards: one in my name, the other under my FI''s name. I ripped up mine a long time ago since I wasn''t using it. We had been using FI''s card to replenish the balance on our sunpass (prepaid tolls) and to pay some bills for the rewards points but decided to stop using it for bill payment several months ago since we switched to bill-pay with our bank. The sunpass account was switched over to our debit card in January and prior to that, the last time we used the card was to rent a car back in September 2009. The card stays at home.

Yesterday while at the park I received a phone call to verify some charges that were pending. One was for $475 at some online retail store. The other was $380 for electronics and several smaller charges totaling about $1800. All online, all on the same day. We declined all of the charges, they cancelled the card and are sending us a new one. They handled it well and told us they called because it wasn''t in-line with our normal spending habits. I did ask them to give me a customer rep # so that I could call AMEX myself just to make sure this wasn''t a scam.

I''m baffled. From what I can remember, we have never used the card for an online purchase and if we did it must have been well over a year ago. The card isn''t lost and we ripped it up when we got home.

It made me really nervous. I asked AMEX to replace my blue as well just in case and I notified my job this morning that they should send for a new corporate card. Probably overreacting but if they could get info on a card that was never really used for online purchases, I can''t imagine what they could do with cards that are used online frequently.

Has this happened to anyone before?

 

[Irishgrrrl]

Wow, Fiery! I''m glad AmEx handled this so well for you! And I too am baffled as to how the thief got your card number in the first place??? Scary!!!

 

[Bella_mezzo]

that happened to me, I still had the card in my possession, and stranger still, they had the magnetic code from the back of the card which they would not have had if they got it from online or from batching out card numbers from a register. My bank said it was probably a cashier who swiped it through a machine of their own and the store''s machine. WHO DOES THAT?

I''m so sorry it happened to you and am glad that AMEX handled it well!

 

[curlygirl]

fiery, the same thing just happened to DH with his Chase Visa. He rarely uses it anymore and had gone to the outlets a few weeks ago and purchased a pair of sneakers from the Nike store. After that, there were apparently 4 or 5 new internet charges that definitely weren''t his. Chase emailed and called him and he thought it was a scam so he asked for a number to call back to make sure it was legit. Sure enough, it was the real deal and they canceled his card and sent him a new one. I was very impressed that they were so on top of it and I''m glad to hear that Amex is the same way. Regardless, it totally sucks that you had to go through that at well and I have no idea how people get these card numbers and get away with doing this stuff. It''s really disgusting to me but I''m glad you have a happy ending.

 

[janinegirly]

It is scary--your card''s numbers can be lifted from a dishonest store/vendor, etc. All of us are suceptible--it''s just question of hoping to not be the unlucky one. Thankfully most cc''s will dispute the charges and you won''t have to eat them. Debit cards scare me though! Am Ex has a hefty annual fee, but they are top notch in customer service so the thieves chose the wrong card! I hope they catch these people!!

PS My friend had her idenity stolen a few years ago--now that was and still is an awful ordeal (and same thing--her bank actually caught it and alerted her before any wires were approved..scary stuff).

 

[CasaBlanca]

I would use this experience as the catalyst to run all three credit checks. Make sure there have been no other breaches in any other area of your credit. You have got to be proactive...and I wouldn''t wait another day. Other cards you have, may not be alerted of your absence of spending...like AE was...Make a checkup call to all cards or creditors. Make certain they have your current contact information. They will make a note of your inquiry and it will be on your record, which helps confirm your prudence.

It is possible the breach came in some other way. There were many news alerts last year of sensitive data being stolen...credit card numbers etc. It could be that yours got caught up in those somehow. (these were not internet usage losses).

I don''t think AE is to blame. If anything they should be praised for having a system that was so quick to activate/deny unauthorized charges. Recognizing your inactivity set off alarms that potentially could have taken months to realize or correct. SO WOO HOO amex!

But I do advise you to be prepared for a delay if you do make a charge similar. Don''t make any time sensitive payments using that line that was breached, at least for a while. (or call ahead to inform them of your intended first charges.)

Be happy. This post could have been so much worst. You are restored at least with your AMEX line.

 

[Shoopy]

Good point on doing a credit check.

I don''t blame AMEX at all. I''m really impressed with them. They didn''t allow any of the charges to go through. When I looked at our statement this morning, nothing was on it-not even charges and subsequent credits.

 

[dragonfly411]

Fiery - I''m sorry that happened to you but so glad that it got taken care of properly!

 

[D&T]

yes, I''ve had this happen to me a few times already, two times during thanksgiving one year after another with a different credit card. Sometimes it is not what you have spent online. Sometimes it happens by those that have had seen your card or swiped your card in say shopping centers, or restaurants or anyplace you use the card physically. Hate to say that there are actually some dishonest employees out there, and they will have full access to your account number and CVS pin number 3 or 4 digits. It is easier to use your card online without the physical card than in person when all you need to know are those numbers or even without the CVS and just a zip code. When my DH worked in food he said yes, there are several ways that bad employees can get full access to your card, some places used to have the full account numbers on the Merchant copy at restaurants (some places have masked those numbers out now). Sorry about this, glad they took care of you.

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 2/22/2010 9:18:14 AM
Author: Bella_mezzo
that happened to me, I still had the card in my possession, and stranger still, they had the magnetic code from the back of the card which they would not have had if they got it from online or from batching out card numbers from a register. My bank said it was probably a cashier who swiped it through a machine of their own and the store''s machine. WHO DOES THAT?

I''m so sorry it happened to you and am glad that AMEX handled it well!

Yes, this has happened to my parents - a cashier has pretty easy access to swipe your number.


Fiery, I''m glad AmEx took care of you!

 

[neatfreak]

It was probably written somewhere on the rental car paperwork perhaps? This has happened to me too. It stinks. I just watch all my cards VERY carefully.

 

[movie zombie]

yes, on several different cards over the years. charges in florida, charges in europe, etc.

the world of international credit card theft is vast and sophisticated. cell phones can be utilize as cameras while you''re in the checkout line. computer data bases are stolen and/or hacked. then there are the scammers. its not just dishonest cashiers.

in most of our cases we''ve been called by the credit card company. in other instances we''ve caught it as we monitor our credit cards online and can see unauthorized charges. remember you are only liable for the first $50 and that most companies eat the entire credit card fraud....which of course they pass on to us.

its happened so often to us that we no longer are surprised....nor do we take it personal, get scared or upset. however, i do call the main credit card providers we use when we''re going to be traveling out of the country and indicate where and for what dates we''ll be traveling so there won''t be a problem in ourselves using our cards. this has proved invaluable as one or the other of us may be out of the country and the other at home so charges could be coming in from various locations and look to be fraud but not.

mz

 

[Haven]

It sounds like you were really lucky in this situation.

DH had a similar situation, but he didn''t even realize it until credit collectors were calling his father''s house. He used to use Verizon Wireless, and there was a breach into their system, and someone got access to a credit card he no longer used but still had open. (His mistake.) The thief charged the maximum to the card, and then disappeared, of course. The debt was sold to a collector, who tracked my husband''s father down and was harassing him at home, but wouldn''t share information about why he was looking for my husband. My FIL failed to mention this for months, so by the time he called this guy back he was very angry. It took months and months, if not a year, to deal with this.

It was awful. We searched around and traced the information to Verizon, who apparently knew about the information breach but failed to contact the customers whose information was stolen. Nice. We''re loyal Sprint customers, now.

 

[VegasAngel]

We''ve had a fraudulent charge to our card, it was a 3 or 4k charge that Mastercard caught & fixed right away.

If your card allows you to generate a number for online purchases it''s a good idea to use it. Really it can happen to anyone who uses a card. We Just have to be diligent about checking statement & receipts.

Always put a line through the tip amount at restaurants if you leave a cash tip or no tip & check your receipts right away to make sure there was no cash back unless you authorized it, double check the amount back. Just my .02

 

[partgypsy]

Nothing surprises me about credit card breakdowns, and we have been pretty lucky. Regarding cashiers, many years ago my sister and I went shopping, she goes to purchase her items at a store in the mall. The next place we stop is at a gas station, and my sister realizes at the pump she doesn't have her card. My sister can be a space case and I tell her she probably forgot the card at home but she says no, this is the card I just used at the mall. So even though it was about 20 minutes later, she calls the credit card company and finds there has been 100's of dollars of purchases on it (athletic shoes). The only good thing was she caught it so early the authorities were alerted and they caught the people the next time they used the card. Apparently the cashier took the card, handed it off to a friend, and race was on. The police had told us this had happened before, where the cc is used to make 1 or 2 big transactions and then disposed of, so we were in a sense lucky.

We've only had to cancel credit cards 2 times. The strangest and most recent time, was use of our number after using the cc to make an online donation. Apparently their portal or whatever wasn't secure.

 

[vespergirl]

Amex is the best. I''ve had my credit card information stolen a few times, and the have always taken care of the fraudulent charges immediately.

I''m so glad that your situation worked out.

 

[Shoopy]

Wow, so many of you have had experiences with this. It''s terrible

.

I''ve had charges run through my debit card and another credit card when my purse was stolen (snatched out of my arms) and I couldn''t get to cancelling all quickly enough. I''ve never had this happen when the credit card was in our possession. I honestly thought it was a scam which was why I asked for the rep # to call back. I had heard of scammers calling and asking you to "verify" your address and last 4 of your social in order for them to get the info they need to use your credit cards.

I don''t know if the rental agreement had the credit card info on it but I do know that they make copies of the driver license. I wonder if they aslo keep copies of the credit card. If they do, that''s a huge risk for their company.