My credit card and I have had a bad six months.

[April20]

I'm now on my THIRD new credit card due to fraud. THIRD. In six months!

Back in August, we ate out. Two days later I noticed a charge from Best Buy. I call DH. Nope, he hasn't been to Best Buy. I call the credit card company. Our card was used for an online/pick up in store transaction at the Best Buy closest to the restaurant. Which is an hour away from where we live. Best we could determine, the someone at the restaurant lifted the number. We were sent new card #1.

Then, a couple months ago, I get a call from the local Chase branch. Someone has one of those checks you can write against the card. Did I authorize it? Um... NOOOOOOOOO!!!! It was $2860ish dollars. They called the police and the guy was arrested. We have a PO Box where the statements go, so I couldn't quite figure out how this guy got them. I wondered if I accidentally tossed them. We got new card #2 at this point.

Just today, I go online to pay the bill. It's HUGE. I start going thru the statement. Yet another check was chased- again for $2860ish dollars. And there's an $86 transaction fee to add insult to injury. So now I'm to receive new card #3 tomorrow. The number was compromised, but they have to cancel the whole thing.

The kicker is I've asked them to stop sending the checks. They keep coming. And I'm now starting to think that a postal worker might be lifting them. I've destroyed every single one that's arrived in the PO Box carefully, so I KNOW it's not me tossing them.

I am SO frustrated! I'm thinking I might need to have a little chat with the postmaster and tell them my concerns.

 

[jazzoboe]

No great advice here, just offering my sympathy. A few weeks ago I had my debit card number compromised. Someone made about $1600 of charges to 6 or 7 different online companies within 6 minutes, wiping out my (and my husband's) checking account. Thankfully our bank's fraud department is awesome. They called us within 15 minutes of the charges happening, and after one phone call we got the card closed, new card sent to me and charges refuted. They also gave us a free line of credit until they were able to get all the money back to our account, which they did by the end of the week. I filed a police report, but was basically told since it all happened online, it's not in the local jurisdiction and they can't do much of anything about it, so whoever did it will probably get away with it. Frankly it was a lot less painful that it could have been, but it still sucks to have to worry about these things happening. So sorry to hear you've dealt with it 3 times recently.

 

[Missy]

Ugh, so sorry you guys! That really sucks! Really scary how easily compromised these things can be. Hope there are no more incidents for you April! You too jazzoboe!

 

[yennyfire]

Yikes!! That's awful April!! Thank goodness you are vigilant and realized what was going on and were able to rectify the situation. I'd definitely talk to the supervisor at the post office....it makes sense that it could be that the source of the issue is the carrier. So sorry you're having to deal with this!!

 

[ame]

WOW. I would be up that postmaster's butt so fast. That is INSANE. People are BRAZEN lately. We had a year like that too. We are both pretty hard core about checking our cards, and Mint as well, but we've stopped trusting people. I feel like I need to start paying for stuff with cash again. I DO NOT pay with a debit card, EVER. Period.

 

[FancyDiamond]

WOW. I would be up that postmaster's butt so fast. That is INSANE. People are BRAZEN lately. We had a year like that too. We are both pretty hard core about checking our cards, and Mint as well, but we've stopped trusting people. I feel like I need to start paying for stuff with cash again. I DO NOT pay with a debit card, EVER. Period.

I feel the same way about debit card. It is very handy when ones needs foreign currency when travelling outside of the country. However, due to fear of possible theft, I would rather carry cash and traveller checks, the good old fashion way.

Times are indeed very different nowadys. I have learned not to blindy trust people any more. Now when I board a plane, I make sure that all my valuable belongings are in my crossbody bag tugged tightly against my chest at all times. Heard too many wild stories about strangers taking bags from the overhead bins. My husband always teases me for being paranoid. Wait until he hears these real crimes committed on boad the planes.

Back to the OP's story. I also hate getting checks from my credit card company. Just to be cautious, I already destroy these unwanted mail. Never realized that some thieves actually succeeded in cashing these checks. Just one more proof that I am not overly cautious.

 

[April20]

I called the police to see if they could pursue it. If mail is stolen INSIDE the post office, USPS has jurisdiction! I am on hold with them now and they are telling me that all they can do is REGISTER MY COMPLAINT. I am so furious.

 

[JewelFreak]

What a major headache, April. Thank goodness your bank is so on the ball, so you didn't have worse hassles. These are bad enough!

I just HATE those checks in my statements! I ask them to stop putting them in -- they do, for about 4 months, then start again. We sometimes get neighbors' mail so it's not impossible ours would go to someone else -- not that my neighbors are dishonest, but who knows what mailbox my statement could appear in? I've NEVER used those checks ever since I've had credit cards. I really hate the scornful assumption that they can tempt me to by continually putting them in my statements -- no matter how often I ask them not to. Don't own a debit card.

I still don't see how anybody even at the PO used yours -- had the envelopes been opened? Or am I just a dumb crook? I'd rake that postmaster over too! Hope #3 is your winning one!

--- Laurie

 

[April20]

That's the thing. They're frigging blank checks. They steal them, make them payable to themselves, sign them and no one is the wiser! The last time this happened, Chase told me they always call the account holder to verify large amounts. Ummmm, NO, they do not! I don't bank with Chase (other than my credit card), so it's not like they have a signature card on file to verify the signature on the check against. It is infuriating that Chase makes it SO SO easy for these to be stolen!

I probably get 3-4 of these checks each month sent to me. I don't pay that much attention to the frequency of them as I shred them so have never, ever noticed that any have gone missing until it's too late. Ugh.

The good news is Chase always reverses the charges immediately with no questions asked.

 

[ame]

That's the thing. They're frigging blank checks. They steal them, make them payable to themselves, sign them and no one is the wiser! The last time this happened, Chase told me they always call the account holder to verify large amounts. Ummmm, NO, they do not! I don't bank with Chase (other than my credit card), so it's not like they have a signature card on file to verify the signature on the check against. It is infuriating that Chase makes it SO SO easy for these to be stolen!

I probably get 3-4 of these checks each month sent to me. I don't pay that much attention to the frequency of them as I shred them so have never, ever noticed that any have gone missing until it's too late. Ugh.

The good news is Chase always reverses the charges immediately with no questions asked.

That would be the end of my relationship with Chase I think. I have an AMEX, I am on DH's Discover, and we have a credit card through our horrendous joke of a credit union. The CU stopped sending them out, as far as we know, bec so many people complained about them. We haven't received them in ages. I always shredded them immediately.

 

[minousbijoux]

This is getting WAY to commonplace now. I guess the bad guys have figured out that since it involves online transactions and more than one jurisdiction, no one wants to deal with it so the likelihood of prosecution is low.

It just happened to me too, only I hadn't even noticed it when I received a call from Best Buy asking if I was authorizing a large gift certificate on my number. Nope. I called my bank and talked to someone, telling them I thought my card had been compromised. Without even asking details, he said "No ma'am, everything looks fine with your card; no out of place charges." How the heck does he know that? He doesn't use my card! So I asked him to read back recent charges, and sure enough, there were other fraudulent Best Buy charges on there. The bank took care of it and issued a new card. A few days later, I looked at my last statement (not the current at that time one with the fraudulent charges), and realized that someone had used my card at a gas station. I don't know how, but they had more than $100 worth of charges on my card. I guess they were testing whether I would catch it before moving on to bigger charges. I didn't, so I ate that one, but how does that happen? At a gas station with no card?! How does one even do that?

April, you are definitely overdue for some good karma!

 

[justginger]

I've never heard of these checks payable against your credit card. The Australian banking system has pretty much made checks completely unavailable here - you only use them for very large transactions and they are a complete pain in the butt. No one will cash them, no businesses accept them, no one has a checking account unless they are a large business or not-for-profit. I think that's the way to go for banks. I wonder how much money is lost by banks via fraud on a yearly basis, even just from petty thieves writing checks they know won't hold up.

I'm sorry you've had such rotten luck, April. I've only had one case of fraud. Down here there was a card skimming drama a few years ago - fake debit readers were put into McDonald's stores, copied your details, and saved them to be printed on blanks cards, along with PINs. http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wes...m-mcdonalds-scam/story-e6frg143-1226308514447 Mine got done (guess the downfall to eating fast food isn't just physical, but financial too!), and I noticed an $800 charge on my account when I was overseas in the States. It definitely reminded me of why I leave the majority of my savings in an untouchable online account -- otherwise I would have lost much more. The effects on someone while traveling would have been a logistical nightmare, I was lucky to be staying in my home country with friends and family to help me out while waiting for reimbursement.

I hope your run of fraud clears up soon. Maybe this is a whole lifetime's worth of bad banking luck in one hit? Fingers crossed.