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Regrettably, I had been getting lax about checking over my credit card statements, and I just happened to look over a recent statement, and a foreign transaction caught my eye since I had not made any foreign transactions in several years. I was distressed to find three total transactions -- two of them in Italy, one in England -- in late November. There were no other fraudulent transactions that I saw looking back several months. Looks like of the Italian transactions, one was to a wireless communications place (maybe a prepaid cell phone?) and the other was to an airline (Air One). The transaction in England was to some company called "EasyJet" -- another flight?
Of course, the first thing I did was notify my credit card company (Citi) and closed the account. I've filled out a "Notification of Disputed Item" form, but I'm wondering if anyone else has gone through something similar and if anyone has advice on how to proceed from here. The total amount of fraudulent charges was around $700 (ouch, but I guess it could have been worse).
I had used this card fairly extensively for online purchases. Most (though not all) of my purchases have been to established retailers. Sure, it could have been lifted any number of ways other than online, but I can't help but wonder if it was lifted as a group of numbers stored by a retailer.
Anyway, I was wondering what peoples' experiences were with something like this. I'm not sure how much I'm liable for (still trying to find that info online).
Thanks in advance!
Bink.
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My own experiences have been lacking, however I would very much like to learn how to use other people's cards in the US and overseas. Do you or anyone else have tips?
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We can split booty you dispute!! Unless it's Vegas - in which case, we'll just get two.
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It probably depends on your CC company as to how much, if any, you are liable. We were out of the country a few weeks ago and came home to four messages from AMEX regarding my account. I assumed they were going to question my purchases but they wanted to ask about some other "fishy" purchases. Turns out someone got my account number and made about $5000 worth of purchases. They already told me I won't be liable and will keep me updated on their investigation. The person also opened a FedEx account and racked up over $500 worth of deliveries.
Mostly, I wonder how someone can use a number and not be traced somehow. Checking the tracking numbers from FedEx, I see that there is a name, address and name and address where it was sent.
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I've had my identity stolen 3 times (or the same thief did it 3 times about 4 months apart)
Watching a Dateline story a while back gave some insight on how common this is.
From my experience, I'd suggest contacting the CC company and upgrade the "disputed charge" to identity theft which will put it in their fraud department.
Then, for what it's worth, notify all 3 credit reporting agencies that your identity has been stolen and reguest a credit report from each - should be free because of the identity theft. Have them put a temporary freze on your account. (not that it does much good - several charges were made with the freeze in effect and I was able to open an account without question - which was stolen about a year later).
Finally, call your local police and file an identity theft report even if you have to go down to the station in person as they are sometimes reluctant to deal with the paperwork. Save the case number to give to the CC company and for any future fraudulent charges.
My case was a PITA but so far has cost me only time and aggravation with over $20,000 in fradulent charges/attempted account creation. They had everything on me as well as CC numbers that had never been used.
I also canceled several CCs that were active but that I wasn't using regularly. Closing accounts could do some temporary harm to your credit score, but, coupled with the theft report shouldn't be much of a problem long term.
Best of luck!
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Packages delivered to and from here go unnoticed. They're fairly easy to find, too.
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one idea:
american express
“Art is how we decorate space.
Music is how we decorate time.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
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I found a $250 Western Union charge for sending Drachmas from Greece a few years back. Called the CC number, and it was gone by the next period.
As to online purchases, it depends on the merchant. For (say) Amazon or OWC, I just use the number. For PayPal or Joe's Indie Music, I generate a temporary number on my CC company's web site. They allow a specified credit limit (which will be no more than the charge), and an expiration date. That service is free - I assume it's cheaper for them than eating the fraud charges.
As someone once said "Security on the Internet is like having an armed guard escort your waitress to the kitchen with your credit card - where the management leaves the receipts thumbtacked to wall next to the unlocked screen door."
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Paypal will now generate one time use Visa numbers for you!
