More fun with credit cards

Personal finance

I used to think those automated calls from Citibank’s early fraud-detection department were nothing but annoyances. Inevitably, my hubby would be traveling overseas, or in another part of the country, and charges to our credit card would be false positives that set off their alarms, forcing me to call back to verify all his charges.

Last month, though, I received one of those calls, and when I called Citibank back expecting to verify all the charges (coincidentally enough, my husband was traveling at the time), it turned out that their detection system had actually detected something right for once. Someone had managed to get our CC number and had started using it to charge and get authorization for all sorts of miscellaneous services, like signing up for a messaging service in Australia, opening up accounts with UPS and FedEx, an auto transport service, and some other random things.

We still have no idea how they got the number, but my guess is that it must have been from an order we placed on the internet. Yes, I know dumpster diving is the #1 place for getting CC numbers, but we shred all receipts and bills, and the guy (or gal) managed to get our address and a phone number that was close enough in appearance to the one associated with the account that I’m pretty convinced all this information must have come from an order we placed somewhere.

The good news is that the damage has been minimal: most charges didn’t go through thanks to the early fraud-detection service, I cancelled the card immediately, and we signed up for to monitor any suspicious activity, which thankfully hasn’t happened yet.

Here are some interesting (or random) tidbits I learned from the experience:

  • Apparently, signing up for accounts with UPS and FedEx is common practice for credit card thieves. An authorization of a few bucks lets the person figure out whether the card is still valid or not, as well as set up accounts that are useful to them.
  • We had to call UPS and FedEx to get those fraudlent accounts closed and flagged, but for whatever reason, the person who opened the account was still able to rack up $1,000 and $300 in overnight shipping fees with each company by overnighting envelopes to a bunch of different recipients and addresses. We then received the invoices at our address. The FedEx rep I spoke to said these accounts are usually used to send stolen travelers, though I’m not sure what the purpose of that would be, exactly. (Use them fast enough before people realize they’re stolen and cancel them?) The only hitch is that we still have to call UPS and FedEx whenever an invoice arrives, just to keep them from sending more of them.
  • If you rack up fradulent charges with Citibank, they will send you an affidavit to fill out to dispute any charges. But this document must be notarized (which can cost anything from nothing to $20). In our case, we paid $10 for a notary public to dispute a charge of $14.95. A bit annoying, but then again, things could have been a lot worse.
  • I guess it’s good to use virtual account numbers when buying stuff from the internet, especially when buying from merchants that we’re unfamiliar with.

Anyway, no more ranting about Citibank’s early fraud detection service for me!

***************************************************

Look Good at Work and Become Indispensable Become an Excel Pro and Impress Your Boss


***************************************************

7 Feedbacks on "More fun with credit cards"

DebtorDaze

The only time I had fraudulent charges on one of my credit cards, it was not caught by my credit card company, and it took 3 months get all the charges reversed. It wasn’t a Citibank card though, I never had a problem with them.



Big Saver

Identity theft…and the people who work so hard to get away with it…just amazes me. If they used that time and effort to do something legitimate, they could be rich!

Glad you were able to resolve this!!



travelling notary

A very good example of the need to be cautious when handling transactions on the web/net! Good that you were able to fix the problem as quickly as possible or else, face the consequence of a closed credit card because of insufficient funds! Thank you so much for sharing and I guess this serves as a warning to everybody. Have a nice day! :)



Kevin

It is actually fairly unlikely that your cc number was swiped over the net. It can be done, but it is no where near as easy as most people think. (I’m a network administrator who learned to protect our systems by taking a class on how to use the techniques hackers use to break in to systems. Fun class…)

It is MUCH easier to compromise the cc number at the vendor level or the cc processing company. In that regard, the harder part is breaking into the server. The easier method is for someone inside to sell the data out. Likewise, it is easy for you to lose your number locally as well when a clerk swaps or sells your number online. In most cases, I think the theft is offline — regardless of whether or not your purchase was online.



CreditSavvy

You should be glad that the fraud detection system detected that something was wrong rigth away. I would even forgibe them the calls they made to verify the transactions you made with the credit card.



fraudswatch.com

Hey there! I was interested to know if setting up a site such your own: %BLOGURL% is challenging to do for inexperienced people? I’ve been wanting to create my own blog for a while now but have been turned off mainly because I’ve always believed it required tons of work. What do you think? Thanks
fraudswatch.com https://www.fraudswatch.com



Frauds Online

You Have Been Defrauded or Scammed Online? Welcome to FraudsWatch.com! We help as Roportal and where to report this thief. Unfortunately this event is becoming increasingly used in internet from people who usually born into poverty such as Nigerians (Nigerian 419), Ghana and many others who tried to take advantage of the kindness of people worldwide. reed more https://www.fraudswatch.com/some-ways-to-avoid-fraud/