Posted on 08/19/2010 9:51:07 AM PDT by davidosborne
Greetings my fellow FReepers. Before anyone complains that this post in "unsourced" let me say that as a recent VICTIM of Credit Card Fraud as well as a law enforcement officer I am very concerned about this epidemic that is hitting our nation HARD ! My main concern about this is....... WHO is paying for it? When a victim of credit card fraud reports unuathorized transactions to their bank they are reimbursed immediately for the unlawful transactions. The bank then becomes the victim, but who reimburses the bank? Is it US the taxpayers? If so what is the DAILY cost of these transactions? Who is tracking this data?
For the past 2 months I was TDY to Fort Knox, KY and while in Kentucky I got a phone call from DISCOVER asking if I had made a charge at a grocery store in OHIO. I told them no and my card was immediately canceled and I was reimbursed for this charge. Important to note is that the fraudulent transaction on my account was done using a physical CARD SWIPE, not a keyed in number, but I had possession of MY card, so the only way that could be possible is if a FAKE PHYSICAL card was made using my credit card account number.
Important to note is that I DID NOT file a police report, and DISCOVER did not request that I do so as a condition of refunding the ammount of the fraudulent transaction. My first day back to work, as a law enforcement officer, after returning from military duty, I personally took 4 reports of credit card fraud. Now these are cases in which the bank REQUESTED that the victim file a report with law enforcement. So you can be sure that the REPORTED cases are only a fraction of the actual cases out there. Have you or someone you know been a victim of credit card fraud? What are we going to do about this?
Honestly with all the cases pouring in I doubt anyone will need to fight their bank when reporting fraud. Most banks have a fraud department that works with law enforcement directly on these cases
I hear ya!
More recently I was notified that my educational loan, which was originated in 1980 and paid off within a few years, was part of a security breach. I've requested credit reports, and have a year of free screening available to me, in case of identity theft.
We continue to use our credit cards, but I always check the statements carefully against receipts. We also let the credit card company know when we're traveling, since they are quick to cut off credit if the charges are outside our typical travel area. I've had a few charges investigated, but over the years I've never had any that turned out to be fraudulent. A few merchants failed to process return credits properly, so watching the statements carefully has paid off.
Oh but if it were only that simple :-) These are very organized and complex enterprises most of the time. I long for the days when a stolen credit card was a teenager ordering a bunch of stuff on his grandma's account.
I watch my transactions carefully as well. In this most recent case I was notified immediately after the transaction was processed because it would have been impossible for my card to be in 2 places at the same time. That was the “fraud detection” trigger. My concern remains about WHO ends up eating the cost of the fraudulent transaction?
I don’t use it except at my bank for withdrawals and for travel to reserve or pay for tickets/cars/hotels. So I don’t get “Hit By Fraud”, and my wife had it happen once, we filled out a form and it stopped and the money went right back. Debit cards have protections, and again I USE CASH so I am NOT A SLAVE TO DEBT.
It sure seems a lot of folks here on FR are LOVING their CREDIT CARDS.
I say KEEP YOURS if you love it so much. They are GREAT, you are right. CREDIT IS AWESOME. /sarc
I agree with you in principle. I use my credit card for everything. But I pay my balance online every few days using electronic transfers this forces me to review transactions daily and ensure EVERY transaction is exactly right any unaproved transaction would be caught the day it is posted to my account. Having said that there is a delay of a few days between the available credit reduction and the corresponding transactions posted so a sudden unexpected reduction in available credit will also trigger a flag for me. In the recent fraudulent charge on my discover card I was called about a suspicious transaction from an automated system immediately after the transaction was processed because one of the card swipes was obviously fake because the same card was swipped in 2 different states about the same time.
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