credit card fraud

[mears]

Just got our credit card statement in today and there are 2 transactions on it totalling £1200 that do not belong to us. One of them is internet betting to the tune of £999!

The credit card company have been great and have said we will not be liable. They will send us a form to fill in and then there should be a police investigation of the companies involved. Very scary that someone else is using our identity.

Anyone else had similar experience?

Yes, Someone intercepted a new card that had been sent out to me. the old card was about to go out of date. They spent almost £500 in one day, and Switch put a stop on it, as it was so unlike my usual spending pattern. The Halifax were excellen, and have given me the cash back. I also put a stop on the whole account, since the thieves had all mu a/c details. You might like to think about doing this, even if it is a pain. And in the end we all end up paying with higher bank charges

Mears, I've just posted about similar events on the other thread about cashpoint scams. Luckily my bank picked it up in time. But it's depressing, isn't it?

I lived in a flat with a shared entrance and it became clear that the people living above us were intercepting my post and stealing my cards before they got to me. I remember once thinking 'I wonder when my Selfridges card is arriving?" and happening to look out of the window at the same time to see my neighbours piling out of a taxi with dozens of bulging Selfridges bags... yup! This is absolutely true. I knew what was going on but the police weren't interested. The flat upstairs (in a nice bit of West London) was owned by a Church charity who was letting it to groups of Nigerians and they wouldn't help either. Eventually, a Nigerian drug smuggler was arrested in Amsterdam with cards and a passport in my name. Thank God, no trouble with the police but it was a nasty experience.

Credit card companies can sometimes be a bit too over-eager when it comes to changes in spending patterns though.

A friend of mine had a ski-related affinity credit card - which the cc company stopped when he was on holiday skiing. They'd spotted a change in the usual pattern (it was being used in a resort in the US when he lived in the UK), and as they couldn't confirm this with him when they called his home phone (uh, hum - he was away on holiday!), they stopped the card. Fortunately there were plenty of us with him to bail him out until he could get the situation sorted and his card activated again, but it could have been tricky otherwise to find himself in a foreign country with no working credit card. Now I'll always take at least two different cards - and make sure I've got both Mastercard and VISA, to make sure we don't get caught in the same way.

I also heard of someone who was buying an expensive engagement ring for his new fiancee - and had the transaction refused and the card stopped because he wasn't in the habit of making large purchases from jewellers

Thought I'd let you know this interesting point from my sister. She is a police sergeant and says that the police will not investigate credit card fraud vigorously because it is the fault of the companies themselves. They need to tighten up there procedures because card cloning is rife. A lot of fraud could be prevented if the companies asked for the security number that is printed on the strip you sign your name on. I didn't even realise it existed!

I ordered some stuff over the phone at the end of last week and was asked for the last three digits on the sig strip and then the operator read the card number back to me, backwards.

It was particularly interesting as this was a company which I know has had to deal with credit card fraud as £1200 was charged to my dad's company mastercard last year from this company when he had never heard of them, let alone ordered from them. The delivery address given at the time was not my dad's and the name used was also not dad's (for delivery at least, not sure about for the card).

Another thought - I used to deal with some credit card fraud when I worked in a bank and the banks have fraud departments which do their own investigations and work with the police anyway. I guess it's specilisation and is taken away from normal police resources IYSWIM which is why they don't investigate it at ground level. After all, some of these card thefts are huge operations involving people across many countries.

Last year, I noticed a transaction on a credit card statement. I had only used the card once (it was an "Emergency" card),and this transaction was for a few roubles which were apparently spent in Moscow. I phoned up the credit card company, to report that I had never been to Moscow, and they let me off the whole amount- a princely £8! The card had been used by me the day before to buy a few things from Amazon, and so I Emailed Amazon to report the fraud, as someone must have got my number from their site, and they flatly denied it was possible. It had to be, I had only used the card once!

A few weeks later I heard on Radio 4's Money Box programme about a Russian who had made millions getting very small amounts of money from other people's credit cards, so I must have been one of his victims, but still don't know how he got my number/ details if it wasn't via Amazon.

Aloha, I had a similar experience in a shared London flat. I lived there with a friend and a Nigerian guy we didn't know before. The flat/area was a bit dodgy, so my friend and I locked our rooms as well as the front door when at work. One day, my friend spotted a credit card had arrived for me, and pushed it under my door for safety. Despite this, it had disappeared by the time I returned from work. It was later found being used to buy a washing machine (the user - an unknown woman - ran off and wasn't caught). Fortunately, this was the last I heard of it (no one trying to use my identity - must be very scary).

We have had v. similar experiences with companies being over eager to stop cards. I have had our cards cut up in front of us twice, once after returning from Russia, and once fom Egypt. Both times the card companty said it was because of unusual spending - foriegn restaurants and shops. I wouldn't have minded so much, but both times we had been on holidays that I had paid for on that card!
When buying expensive jewellry recently, the shop owner asked to see picture identification that matched the name on the credit card. He said it was because he had been scammed so many times in taht past the card companies had requested he do this. Or maybe me and dh just looked dodgy