Credit Card Fraud Question

[Don Jarvie]

My wife checks our CC and bank accounts on line everyday. A few months ago someone used her ATM and Bank of America was very good about it. Sadly you need to be vigilent to keep these crooks in line.

[Dan Hintz]

how do this name sound I Am Lie

I was thinking about I'm a Lie...

[Brian Elfert]

Someone bought a Lincoln Navigator using my identity back in 2000 or 2001. Wells Fargo was good about removing the loan from my credit report. The buyer got some insurance so they could register the vehicle, but they never paid for the insurance and it was canceled. They got in an accident with the vehicle and I ended up getting the ticket for no insurance. The ticket got taken care of after I took the police report and other paperwork to the county. It turns out the auto dealer that sold the car accepted a paper driver's license renewal form without seeing a photo ID to sell the buyer a car.

All in all it wasn't that bad getting it straightened out. Nobody has stolen my identity since.

[David Larsen]

Fish USA has been a tremendous help as well. I called them back and they were able to give me a phone number and e-mail address for the person who placed the order. Phone number is a landline in Naples, FL, ship to address is in New York. I'm going to file a police report after work.

If this person is up to fraudulent activity this may not be a legitimate name or phone number in Naples.

[Belinda Barfield]

If this person is up to fraudulent activity this may not be a legitimate name or phone number in Naples.

More than likely it isn't. The police officer seemed to think that the e-mail address would be the most helpful. Some crooks are dumb, hopefully this one is (if the matter is even pursued).

[Charles Wiggins]

Maybe I'm just proactive, I called the store and stopped shipment because I don't want the thief to get the order. By filing the police report there is a slight chance that someone might give a dang and the guy might get caught, thereby saving someone else the trouble of having to go through all of this. It really ticks me off when someone steals from me.

I'm with you Belinda. If it was me I would be trying to figure out how to find them and visit so much pain on them that they never even want to hear my name again.

Kudos on your expert job getting this stopped. It's great that you were able to catch it before the transaction was completed. Have you considered signing up for ID Theft protection? I hear a lot of ads for LifeLock, which is supposed to be able to stop it as it happens. It would have probably worked in your case but there are a lot of kinds of ID theft that do not involve your credit cards or credit reports. A lot of companies don't do a credit check before issuing new credit. I have ID Experts, through Zander Insurance. It costs $140/yr. to cover my whole family. They don't claim to stop it, but they will do all the work to clean up the mess for you when there is an incident.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Have you considered signing up for ID Theft protection? I hear a lot of ads for LifeLock, which is supposed to be able to stop it as it happens.

I'm not going to go far into this, but all these "identity theft protection" services are mostly complete scams. LifeLock, in particular, essentially only places a permanent "fraud alert" on a credit report (something you can achieve yourself, for free, with just a few phone calls), and was fined by the FTC for their deceptive advertising practices (ie - claiming protection that they can't actually provide).

[Charles Wiggins]

I'm not going to go far into this, but all these "identity theft protection" services are mostly complete scams. LifeLock, in particular, essentially only places a permanent "fraud alert" on a credit report (something you can achieve yourself, for free, with just a few phone calls), and was fined by the FTC for their deceptive advertising practices (ie - claiming protection that they can't actually provide).

Dan,

You're right, most ID Theft Protection plans are scams. What LifeLock got nailed for was claiming that they could prevent ALL types of identity theft, which I explained is impossible, and why I subscribe to Zander's plan instead of LifeLock.

Zander provides information on how to do all that a consumer can do to prevent ID Theft. What you actually pay for is an advocate who will do whatever it takes and spend as much time as it takes to clean up the mess when there is a problem, plus up to $20,000 reimbursement for lost income and expenses associated with identity theft. Without the plan you have to spend hours and hours and hours and hours figuring out who to call, making calls, arguing, providing proof, etc.; OR, paying $50-$100 an hour for someone who knows what they are doing to do it for you. For $140/yr I don't have to worry about it.

[Belinda Barfield]

I'm with you Belinda. If it was me I would be trying to figure out how to find them and visit so much pain on them that they never even want to hear my name again.

Kudos on your expert job getting this stopped. It's great that you were able to catch it before the transaction was completed. Have you considered signing up for ID Theft protection? I hear a lot of ads for LifeLock, which is supposed to be able to stop it as it happens. It would have probably worked in your case but there are a lot of kinds of ID theft that do not involve your credit cards or credit reports. A lot of companies don't do a credit check before issuing new credit. I have ID Experts, through Zander Insurance. It costs $140/yr. to cover my whole family. They don't claim to stop it, but they will do all the work to clean up the mess for you when there is an incident.

Thanks for the info Charles, I'll check it out. I am a member of Credit Observer but they really only tell you if someone has checked your credit report, or tried to open a new account.

I did receive a call from the bank regarding potentially fradulent use of my card, asking me to verify charges, but they called my home number and I was at work. They called at about the same time that I discovered it on my own.

[Kevin W Johnson]

You know, most all cases of people doing what happened here could be prevented if ALL merchants and CC companies would deny a transaction if billing and shipping addresses don't match. You can as a card holder have additional shipping adresses added to the account in such case that you want to ship to a different address.

In this case, IMO Fish USA owes Belinda a reward or something...... Had she not contacted them, and that merchandise had shipped, they would have ultimately been out their merch/$2200.

[Leigh Costello]

Ah, the sordid world of credit/debit card fraud. We had our card info compromised by some really smart folks in PA. They were so smart that they took their family portraits at a bed and breakfast and the photographer at the b and b was more than happy to share the pictures and such with the authorities. We got lucky that time. Last month our "back-up" card that we only use for 2 things was used to book a Bahamas cruise - but before the charges were approved, we were called and were able to prove it wasn't us.

[Myk Rian]

how did this person get my account number, etc? The person used my debit card info. I always use that card as a credit card so I don't have to enter the PIN number.

Sellers don't ask for ID. That's the problem.
Our CC got jacked 2 weeks before X-mas. They ran up $14,000 in 2 days, in 3 widely separated cities. We figure they got the number from a card reader at the gas station.
You need to use the debit card for bank withdrawals, and nothing more. A CC should be used for everything else. The card company will cover losses.
You are darned lucky you didn't get cleaned out.

[Brian Elfert]

It used to be that most merchants would not ship anywhere but the billing address or another address supplied to the credit card issuer. I have had no issues getting stuff delivered to other addresses twice in the past year even though I never contacted my credit card issuer.

I know that Paypal/Ebay require the seller to deliver to the confirmed Paypal address or else the seller could have no recourse if the buyer says they never got the shipment. Ebay is so slated towards buyers these days that I don't know if it even matters anymore. Even if one ships to the confirmed address the buyer could say they never got it and Ebay would just rule in the buyer's favor.

[Brian Elfert]

Sellers don't ask for ID. That's the problem.

It is against Visa and Mastercard rules to require an ID to use a credit card. Visa and Mastercard feel that customers will be less likely to use a credit card if an ID is required. They make money on every transaction so they want credit cards used as often as possible. Merchants are also not supposed to take any cards that say "See ID" or similiar. All cards are supposed to have an actual signature.

There are customers who get completely bent out of shape if a merchant asks for an ID to complete a credit card sale. Some of them go so far as to write letters to corporate offices and to Visa/Mastercard complaining they had to show an ID to use a credit card. I have no idea why these people have an issue showing an ID. It protects them and the merchant to have an ID.

It is perfectly understandable that merchants would want to have an ID. The merchant loses money if a bad credit card is used. Visa/Mastercard aren't out the money if there is a bad transaction. Some credit card companies had programs where they were putting photos on credit cards. I have no idea why that never took off.

[Matt Meiser]

Reall? Because even a lot of big stores like Lowes and Target ask.

It doesn't matter though as a lot of times they steal the data off the magnetic strip on one card and encode it on another according to my credit union. It's really easy to obtain a generic gift card with a cc company logo.