Think it can't happen to you? I never gave it a thought until this morning when I discovered 3 charges to my Visa card that I had not made. 3 different grocery stores on the same day for a total of $68. I went to my credit union this morning. They removed the charges, blocked the card number and issued me a new card. In going over my statement they noticed that I had made several card purchases at Home Depot and that was probably the source of my breach. I was also told that the culprits like to make small purchases so that they won't draw attention.
My card went missing during a night that included on OTC outing with a stripper. I am sure that she was involved, but I can't prove it obviously. Later that night, someone unsuccessfully tried to use it at a gas station, which I only learned because I went online to my account and saw the denied authorization attempt. Little did they know that the zip code associated with the card is tied to my business address and not the area in which I live.
Good thing you caught it. One of my friends dropped his wallet out of his pocket at a gas station while on his motercycle. He had $1200 in charges within an hour or so. He found his wallet in a trash can outside the last store his card was used at.
I have started carrying just one cc. All the rest go into my lock box. I don't think I will be accepting anymore.
They have become more of a nuisance than an aid (and spending is another nuisance!) I haven't been burned yet, but those that I know that have been... been seeing more use of cash.
I suppose the less ya use a credit card, the less havoc it (and others stealing it when your like 10 miles away) can play on your finances. It is far easier to sleep.
Someone wanted to charge $6000 worth of airplane parts from Boeing on my card once. That one got flagged thank goodness; they called my cell to ask about it. WTF? Airplane parts??
Club Paradise filed suit in District Court Monday against three former managers and three strippers alleging they stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the club and its customers in a credit card scheme.
In June, Las Vegas police and IRS agents raided the longtime topless club, operating for two decades in the shadow of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Paradise Road, looking for evidence of overcharging through credit card fraud.
The club has been closed since the raid.
Named as defendants in the suit are the three former managers, Ryan Carlson, John Carcilli and Ricardo Tabares and the three dancers, Giovanna Chico, Bibi Rambharan and Cyndi Sellers.
The suit alleges the defendants defrauded the club and its patrons through a pattern of racketeering activity between May 2013 and June. Six customers were identified in the suit as victims of the scheme.
Attorneys Dominic Gentile and Vincent Savarese, who filed the suit, said earlier this year that club employees were given letters indicating they were targets of a county grand jury.
Club lawyers learned from employees interviewed by police that the investigation was focusing on two to three dancers, who were independent contractors, and three male managers who resigned a week before police showed up at the club. The managers stepped down rather than take polygraphs about a $50,000 theft from a safe at the club, the lawyers said.
Police executed a broad search warrant at Club Paradise on June 6 that sought records of dealings with customers who may have been affected. Most of these customers were from out of town and several were regarded as very wealthy.
Those close to the investigation said customers angry about credit card overcharges reported the irregularities to law enforcement authorities.
The search warrant sought an array of business records, bank statements, credit card accounts, drugs and drug paraphernalia, computers and cell phones and other personal property belonging to 21 dancers and employees.
Police also obtained a second search warrant by telephone during the raid to seize $100,000 they found in a safe.
Someone wanted to charge the purchase of a yacht to my American Express. That one got flagged I'll tell you! Makes me shudder to think who had that number.
I've gotten phone calls first thing in the morning from my credit card company flagging suspicious activity. All except one time were they fraudulent. And this summer, maybe a month before my big annual trip, I did a random online check on my checking account. Someone in DE (Delaware? Denmark?) tried to charge 69 cents on my debit card. A quick call to the bank voided that charge, cancelled that card, and got another one issued to me.
Apart from USA, every country that I have visited in the last 10 years or so has credit cards and debit cards with embedded chips. When I am in USA I have a helluva time finding merchants or ATMs that can accept my cards. Usually I must visit a bank and go through the nonsense of phone calls and many identification verifications just to get a wad of cash. It is a serious pain in the ass. In Canada and Europe my cards work everywhere.
When will USA get with the program? An ancillary benefit to the chip cards is a serious reduction in fraud.
When people start telling banks "I won't use your card because there is no chip on it to encrypt transactions and I don't want to deal with the fraud and bullshit that it entails."
@art: I had a real bitch of a time finding an American card to work when I was in Sweden and buying gas. Finally found one the machines would accept. But then I would get charged three times: a hold in Krona, then the cost of the gas in Krona, then the cost of the gas in USD. Thing was it took them three to four days to convert the Krona to USD so I was being billed as if the Krona were USD in the meantime. So each tank of gas was tying up about $500 USD. And I was driving quite a bit too. Finally just started paying cash in advance at those places where they had someone with good enough English to know what I wanted.
The Fraud detection is getting better. I've had to cancel three cards in the last three years. One time I had to call it manually but the other times they caught it first. I was pretty surprised they didn't catch it the first time. There was a bunch of gas purchases but no way a person could drive the distances in the time between them.
This year seems particularly bad for it.
It's too bad because guys like Chaum worked protocols for this stuff way back in the 80s. I guess too expensive for banks though and too back a threat to intelligence and tax agencies.
I found a 4th charge, this morning, that sneaked through before they put a block on the card, This one was for $3.77 at McDonalds. I can imagine what type of person we are dealing with here.
@shadow - my new service can help with this also. Send me a PM with your credit card #'s, expiration dates and security codes, along with your zip code, and I'll look into for you, no charge.
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They have become more of a nuisance than an aid (and spending is another nuisance!) I haven't been burned yet, but those that I know that have been... been seeing more use of cash.
I suppose the less ya use a credit card, the less havoc it (and others stealing it when your like 10 miles away) can play on your finances. It is far easier to sleep.
Club Paradise filed suit in District Court Monday against three former managers and three strippers alleging they stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the club and its customers in a credit card scheme.
In June, Las Vegas police and IRS agents raided the longtime topless club, operating for two decades in the shadow of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Paradise Road, looking for evidence of overcharging through credit card fraud.
The club has been closed since the raid.
Named as defendants in the suit are the three former managers, Ryan Carlson, John Carcilli and Ricardo Tabares and the three dancers, Giovanna Chico, Bibi Rambharan and Cyndi Sellers.
The suit alleges the defendants defrauded the club and its patrons through a pattern of racketeering activity between May 2013 and June. Six customers were identified in the suit as victims of the scheme.
Attorneys Dominic Gentile and Vincent Savarese, who filed the suit, said earlier this year that club employees were given letters indicating they were targets of a county grand jury.
Club lawyers learned from employees interviewed by police that the investigation was focusing on two to three dancers, who were independent contractors, and three male managers who resigned a week before police showed up at the club. The managers stepped down rather than take polygraphs about a $50,000 theft from a safe at the club, the lawyers said.
Police executed a broad search warrant at Club Paradise on June 6 that sought records of dealings with customers who may have been affected. Most of these customers were from out of town and several were regarded as very wealthy.
Those close to the investigation said customers angry about credit card overcharges reported the irregularities to law enforcement authorities.
The search warrant sought an array of business records, bank statements, credit card accounts, drugs and drug paraphernalia, computers and cell phones and other personal property belonging to 21 dancers and employees.
Police also obtained a second search warrant by telephone during the raid to seize $100,000 they found in a safe.
Maybe it was LMN LNM LSMFT, or whatever getting parts for his jet.
When will USA get with the program? An ancillary benefit to the chip cards is a serious reduction in fraud.
The Fraud detection is getting better. I've had to cancel three cards in the last three years. One time I had to call it manually but the other times they caught it first. I was pretty surprised they didn't catch it the first time. There was a bunch of gas purchases but no way a person could drive the distances in the time between them.
This year seems particularly bad for it.
It's too bad because guys like Chaum worked protocols for this stuff way back in the 80s. I guess too expensive for banks though and too back a threat to intelligence and tax agencies.
The technology is there in the US and has been for years. Why it's not used, my first guess would be some stupid dodd/frank regulation.
Me too?