Credit card fraud

For the second time in a year, someone has made fraudulent charges on my credit card from overseas - this time from Macau, China. In both cases the card was not lost or stolen and the bank picked up on it pretty quickly and put a hold on the card (luckily I was only grocery shopping at the time and not entertaining the Ambassador of France).

Has this happened to anyone else? Anyone have any suggestions for preventing it? The person I talked to from the bank doesnt think that there is much I can do. She said some people are in the business of randomly generating 16 digit numbers until one works.

 

Don't have a credit card. Serious suggestion.

 

I've seen both of my parents get fucked by credit cards. I don't believe in them at all.


I also don't see the absolute necessity of them either. You can carry around cash like everybody used to. Seemed to work quite well and nobody got fucked over either.

Credit can be used to put people in already tough positions into even tougher positions. They fall behind on payments and then have debt up to the damn ears. It's a good way to keep people down. Very neat trick. With cash, you don't have to worry about oweing a damn company any money. The vast majority of people in any country do not need credit cards. The only thing I get pissed about is that I can't order shit online, but if that means that I won't fall into debt, then so be it.

 

Mo, sounds like some bad luck on your part. Most banks are pretty good about 1) spotting these, and 2) disputing charges.

As for only carrying cash...it just isn't an option for most people. You can't buy things online with cash, you can't pay bills with cash, it's more difficult to keep track of your spending, etc. In addition, you have to have some sort of credit history if you want to buy a house (unless, of course you have that much cash laying around, but nobody actually does).

edit: yes, people can get in trouble with credit, but how is that the fault of credit cards? It isn't that difficult to pay bills on time. If you can't, it's your own fault for overspending in the first place. Credit cards aren't the problem, people who think a line of credit is free money are.

 

You can pay bills with money orders.


If you have a limited income you really don't have to worry about keeping track of spending.

Again, if you have a limitied income you really shouldn't be buying that house.


ONline things can be bought at stores.

My rant is mostly towards the people with limited income because they constantly get fucked over and it's their own fault. A person gets caught up in the "free" money and then finds out that money wasn't so free. If you're making enough to pay the bills and you really do need that credit card, then go for it, but otherwise stick with the money.

 

Yes FFC24, I agree people who dont have the money should stay away from credit cards, but these people usually dont get very big credit lines so they should be able to learn their lesson without doing too much damage.

For people like me who pay off their balance every month, they're a huge convenience that costs me nothing and I earn miles (actually now it is cash). I think it's better than leaving a huge carbon footprint by driving all over god's creation to my bank so I dont have to pay a withdrawal fee for my own money.

So this has happened to no one else? Makes me think something is wrong with either what I do or the cards I have used.

 

This happened only once to me through a girl that worked at my dry cleaners, she took my check card out of my pocket and made two quick charges before the card was closed by the bank, and she did a few months in stir for it.

CC companies can only charge you legally for up to $50 for fraudulent charges, but many don't even do that as they don't want to lose face in the eyes of their customers. In my case, approx. $350 was stolen, and that is nothing but an operating cost to Visa. Banks are very good at flagging atypical purchases by a customer -- they don't want to lose too much money either.

 

RE: Re: Credit card fraud

MO, i've never had it happen to me, but a good friend of mine is a lawyer that specializes in identity theft and cc fraud. he does extremely well, especially living in Mississippi.

 

RE: Re: Credit card fraud

The stuff happening to me seems to have no connection to the states. No one has stolen my identity and the charges have originated from China, Quatar, and Saudi Arabia. The bank has always spotted it by the second or third charge and they've not asked me to cover any of the charges. It's just an inconvenience because my card gets cancelled and I have to re-do any automatic payments. I dont like having back-up cards but you need them when happens. And actually, the first time it happened it was with a back-up card that I never used.

 

RE: Re: Credit card fraud

If I am going to steal an identity, it won't be of someone from Mississippi.

I'm thinking more like.....Fernando Torres.

 

Once for me, but like Don, no one used it. Thank you for that AT&T. Apparantly they'd had a security failure of some sort and my cc# was one of many "at risk". Pain in the neck, but nothing more.

I was thinking 12. Other cc uses? Car rental, airline tickets, hotel reservations.......whatever. Most importantly though, as mentioned previous are building credit and convenience (although a debit card can cover the latter in most instances).

 

All shit I don't need. I find it amazing that people think you need those things or even might need them. I don't need credit and I don't need the uses of a credit card to get by in life. Shock and awe, some people don't find a need for the things many others do. Would I want to maybe go online and get a book that's hard to find? Sure. But I realise that I don't need that book and can probably just download it from some site anyways. Would I find it more convienient to rent a car instead of taking the Tube everywhere? Sure, but why get a car when you can experience the real city by taking public transportation? Would I like to rent a hotel room from time to time? Absolutely, but I can just crash on my friends couch. seriously, Credit cards are not needed.

 

Re: RE: Re: Credit card fraud

I'm thinking more... Whitesbhoy

Sorry, I had to say that PCB -- I've giggled at that everytime I've seen it.

 

FFC24 must be the coolest dude in the world, because he has friends with a couch in every city, and only travels to places with public transportation.

 

easy whitesbhoy. I didn't say all his clients were in mississippi, where i promise there are people that you wouldn't mind having their wealth, but his practice is there. He's actually pretty active nationally and I think is one of the few that specialize in the area. He's been on 60 minutes and a few other "news" shows.

 

Thanks for totally missing the point. Point was that all the shit you guys say you might need, you really don't need. Or you could just pay in cash and not have to worry about paying credit card payments. Credit cards are NOT a necessity.

 

FFC24 - I would not travel abroad without having a credit card as backup. I dislike cash as it encourages wastefulness on my part.

Mo - I only use my card on the Internet in sites that I trust. I will research information about the site - like it has a head office and a phone number that when rings is answered appropriately.

When I pass my card over for payment I do not let it out of my sight - and where ever possible I retain physical control of my cards. Cloning cards is big business, it takes seconds to swipe a card through a reader and steal the information.

I also shred all documents in a cross shredder that contain my name, address or any personal information. Likewise - I don't publish my email address and rarely use my full name. It's sad to be so paranoid, but hopefully my identity and my finances will remain mine.

 

Thanks DC that helps a lot. I was really starting to think it had something to do with what I'm doing, but maybe not. It's nice to know that it even happened on a business credit card that was probably never used online. I guess I've just been unlucky with it happening twice.