Posted on 04/01/2014 7:45:20 AM PDT by pabianice
In the last three days I have been contacted by credit card fraud offices regarding two different credit cards with questionable charges. Several months ago I was contacted about a third. All the charges quoted were fraudulent. In the past I have received such a call perhaps once every several years, but never two in one week or three in several months. They were legitimate calls and asked for no personal information and the fraud was backed-up by the cards' online webpages.
Is anyone else having such a problem? WTH?
About 3 years ago, I got a call from the Credit Union VISA. It seemed that someone bought an airplane ticket from Turkey to Dubai on my card, and they had another Middle Eastern airline ticket charge ‘pending.’
Since the CC issuer could see that I had no history of travel outside the US, they flagged the purchases.
End result: The CC issuer cancelled the card immediately and issued me a new one.
The trouble was, I had that old CC set up as the automatic payment card for some utilities and recurring charges. When they cancelled the card, that locked the automatic payment out. But, since the automatic payments were ‘in process’, they still tried to charge the card. Of course, the payments bounced and I got hit with late fees.
The next month, after I got the new card number, I dropped most of the auto-pays. Now, I still use the card, but I enter it each month for those utilities.
Are you sure you were notified by the credit card issuer?Never ever give any info to anybody about credit cards.Espechially if it’s a cold call.
If you get a call of that type tell the party that you can’t provide any info.Than call the customer service number on the Credit Card.
Save yourself the trouble and heartache of having to repair the damage.
About a year ago I received an email(NOT A CALL)from American Express asking if I had made some questionable charges in New Zealand and Thailand.
I though it was a scammer, so I called the 800# on the back of my card. As soon as I entered my account # they sent me directly to the fraud department. So, it was for real. They cancelled the card and sent me a new one within 48 hours. I suspect it may have been an employee at the Thai restaurant down the street because the charges came from Bangkok.
So, I would contact each credit card directly via the # on the back of your card. However, I would never give information to an incoming phone call or email. No matter how official it looks.
Cybersecurity officials are still sizing up how much truth, if any, there is in a purported hacker group's claim that it stole data on hundreds of millions of U.S. card accounts.
The group, calling itself Anonymous Ukraine, said last week that it has seized information related to 800 million U.S. credit and debit card accounts — including cards said to belong to President Obama and other political heavyweights. The group says it wants to harm the U.S. economy.
Two companies investigating the breach — Risk Based Security and Battelle — say they have been unable to verify that 800 million accounts, including those of the VIPs, have been compromised. And many of the records the group has produced as evidence of its theft are incomplete, out of date or fraudulent, the investigators say.
For that reason the threat doesn't appear to be as serious as the Target breach, where hackers obtained 40 million valid, current cards. Still, the claims and any further releases of information need to be vetted, and they serve as a reminder of the constant vigilance and collaboration required of financial firms, officials say.
All of our CC and debit cards have been reissued within the past month or so. There is something going on past just Target as we don’t the cards in stores.
Discover Card is actually good. I bought a $300 Tv and they had called before I got home. I always call and tell them I’m heading for Florida so any charges in NC,SC, Ga, Fl so any charges on the 1-95 corridor will be OK. I also have notified them I’m going fishing in Mexico, Venezuela, or Aruba and to accept all charter charges from this captain and on my other card (from them) accept restaurant and hotel charges ONLY. They blocked a number of charges issued on my card from other countries during the 3 week term I advised them about.
Hubby’s Amex was replaced twice in a 2 week period because of fraudulent charges.
Cancelling credit cards affects your credit rating.
Yup, this happened to us 3 times — with our Discover Card. Over $14,000 worth of stuff was purchased on one of the occasions. Good times.
I assume you looked on your statement or online statement to verify that you indeed had fraudulent charges? BTW, fraudulent charges on a credit card automatically results in the cancellation of the card and issuance of a new card with a new number.
“I have my CC set up to email me of EVERY transaction, since I don’t have very many transactions, per month.”
I do the same thing, but with a threshold because I have lots of small charges. I recently found a fraudulent charge of major magnitude that way before the bank did, called and got a new card over-nighted to me after the old one was cancelled. I also tracked down the merchant and called them to warn them and see if they could catch the miscreant. Turns out the fraudster was trying to buy a car and was coming back later to pick it up. I suggested the police be waiting instead of the car.
Such email notification is a vital defense mechanism against fraud, and I’d advise you to switch to a company that has this service. Credit card issues are a dime a dozen.
Does it improve one's rating, or worsen it?
Regards,
Have you used all three cards at the same place? We had our work cafeteria “hacked” a few years ago, got one card twice and I closed a 2nd card I had used there as soon as we figured it out. Happened over three or so months.
Next call was to my bank, who quickly investigated and labeled the charge fraudulent within minutes. Card was canceled, and a new one sent overnight, in time for my next trip. The bank described that frequently small charges are put through by the fraud perps as a test before going after the big charges.
Moral of the story: check your credit card activity frequently. Don't wait until the month-end statement arrives. It will save a lot of hassles.
Worsens it. Don’t ask me why.
Tell them to give you a new card with a new account number because the card number has been compromised, then never use it again.
Credit card fraud is on the rise.
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