New CC Scam

[AllDone]

Citibank called us this weekend about the yearly credit card fraud. Somebody tried to buy a Volvo from a Florida dealer with our credit card number (we would never buy a major, depreciating asset with a credit card! What an insult.) My husband was astounded because this card has never been out of our sight. Apparently they are now using random number generators to produce card numbers.

The new card, of course, is not chip and pin even though Citibank does offer chip and pin cards since routinely issuing them might cost the bank an extra nickel per card.

 

[robmac]

Same thing happened to me...

Someone suddenly started charging to my Fidelity AMEX card in Canada while my plates were still in my wallet in Texas. At some point I am guessing someone copied my swipe strip and made a copy. Fidelity (FIA Card Services) immediately credited the bogus charges back to me and issued new cards.

 

[marko]

Apparently, I once bought someone a club membership in Singapore. I'm so generous!

 

[ERD50]

... Somebody tried to buy a Volvo from a Florida dealer with our credit card number (we would never buy a major, depreciating asset with a credit card! What an insult.) ....

Insult??!! Heck, if they would let me use the CC to purchase a car I would do it in a flash. A 2% reward is real money on a car purchase.

-ERD50

 

[HFWR]

First it's "DeflateGate"; now their cheating in cross country too?


Sent from my iCouch using Early Retirement Forum

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Insult??!! Heck, if they would let me use the CC to purchase a car I would do it in a flash. A 2% reward is real money on a car purchase.

-ERD50

I tried that once. The dealer will add the 3% CC fee to his final negotiated price so it doesn't work. But I was all excited there for a few minutes!

 

[Cobra9777]

I tried that once. The dealer will add the 3% CC fee to his final negotiated price so it doesn't work. But I was all excited there for a few minutes!

This policy varies by dealer. Last used car I bought, the dealer allowed up to $5K with no fee. So I put $5K on my Fidelity AMEX 2% card, and wrote a check for the rest. On the car before that, I put the entire $15K purchase on the 2% card, but paid a 1% fee to the dealer. I've had other dealers refuse the card altogether.

 

[mn54]

Someone suddenly started charging to my Fidelity AMEX card in Canada while my plates were still in my wallet in Texas. At some point I am guessing someone copied my swipe strip and made a copy. Fidelity (FIA Card Services) immediately credited the bogus charges back to me and issued new cards.

This must be on a large scale. FIA just contacted me and cancelled my visa cards and issued me new cards even though I had not had any bogus charges on my account.

 

[audreyh1]

Right, we just got new Fido Amex cards this month.

 

[Cobra9777]

This must be on a large scale. FIA just contacted me and cancelled my visa cards and issued me new cards even though I had not had any bogus charges on my account.

Same here, new Fidelity AMEX from FIA, but it was about 2-3 weeks ago. They said it was in response to a security breach at a major retailer. So I just assumed it was part of the Home Depot thing. The new cards have the chip also.

 

[Walt34]

Insult??!! Heck, if they would let me use the CC to purchase a car I would do it in a flash.

-ERD50

Especially if it is on Alldone's card.....

 

[Chuckanut]

Four credit cards replaced in the
last 12 months due to fraud.
Not so good

 

[audreyh1]

Same here - 3 credit cards replaced in the last six months. The first two - I noticed and reported charges I had not made. The last one was the major retailer compromise.

 

[cooch96]

I got a similar letter this month. It'd been at least five years since the last debacle.

 

[Amethyst]

Barclay M/C replaced our card last fall due to widespread fraud. I forgot our monthly gym membership is on that card, and had to beg and endure scolding to get a $ 39 late fee removed.

The weirdest fraud charge was years ago, when someone in Miami used our Discover to pay for one gross (144) box of condoms. It must have been some party, and meanwhile here We were, stuck in MD in winter...

Amethyst

 

[Sunset]

Citibank called us this weekend about the yearly credit card fraud. Somebody tried to buy a Volvo from a Florida dealer with our credit card number (we would never buy a major, depreciating asset with a credit card! What an insult.) .......

I just put $2,500 on CC for a new car, it was the max the dealer would allow, plus a check.

I'm happy to get the 2.5K points.

 

[ChicagoGal]

Apparently, I once bought someone a club membership in Singapore. I'm so generous!

I'm not nearly as generous. All I've ever bought people were a new mattress and a couple of albums on ITunes (separate incidents).

Maybe it's not a matter of generosity. Maybe I just have less imaginative fraudsters.

 

[JoeWras]

I'm not nearly as generous. All I've ever bought people were a new mattress and a couple of albums on ITunes (separate incidents).

Maybe it's not a matter of generosity. Maybe I just have less imaginative fraudsters.

WHOA! This clicked with me!

Do other people have this hand-written signs by the road in your community that say "New Queen Mattress - $300". They have popped up all over and are an eyesore.

And I'm thinking, why on earth would non-named people be selling mattresses this way?

And then I read your post. It clicked. It is probably hot goods. Who on earth would expect a mattress to be stolen, especially if new and shrinkwrapped?

BTW, my fraudsters bought knives somewhere in eastern europe.

 

[RockyMtn]

Apparently, I once bought someone a club membership in Singapore. I'm so generous!

That's a good one. I bought someone $30 worth of pizza in Copenhagen!

 

[Sarah in SC]

I bought a $3000 baby stroller one time.
When the CC company called me, it was happy hour on a Friday night.
I have never laughed so hard! Definitely not me!

 

[Chuckanut]

The last fraud was for $0.21. I figure it was a test to see if anybody would notice. We did.

 

[gozer]

I bought someone in California fraud monitoring protection once. I assume it was an unintentional screw up and not someone actually stealing a credit card to protect their own cards.

 

[FUEGO]

This policy varies by dealer. Last used car I bought, the dealer allowed up to $5K with no fee. So I put $5K on my Fidelity AMEX 2% card, and wrote a check for the rest. On the car before that, I put the entire $15K purchase on the 2% card, but paid a 1% fee to the dealer. I've had other dealers refuse the card altogether.

+1 I bought a used work van for my FIL for $7k. $2k on my CC, $5k cashier's check.

 

[harley]

I just had to get a new Amazon Visa. Someone in TX tried to use my card to buy a WildTangent game for $9.99. It was rejected because they had the wrong expiration date and billing address. It sounded to me like somebody typo'ed their CC number, but they shut down my account anyway.


I buy everything on my Discover CC for the cash back bonus, and since a fair chunk of that is for my business it really adds up. But I can see a time in the future when it's just not worth it. Chip and pin helps with in person purchasing, but unless they come up with something to provide real security for online purchases it could get very expensive for the CC companies and very annoying for the customers.

 

[latexman]

In the early 1990's, I bought someone about $450 worth of pizza in Pattaya, Thailand. I protested and the CC company credited me. This is a scam as old as CC's.