credit card fraud pending

[glinka]

I checked my last statement and saw two charges pending, one of $.20 and other of $.49. They were from Uber eats of San Francisco. I live in Michigan and never used Uber eats. I called Citi and they said they would cancel card and issue new. My question is why would they charge so little if it's fraud?
And of course I wonder how they got my information.

 

[euro]

Can't help you with how they got your info, but I have had Uber eats San Francisco fraudulent charges before. Probably about 6 months ago. If I remember correctly though, they were in the 50-150 dollar range (several charges). It's possible that whoever grabbed your info wanted to run a couple of test charges to make sure the account is active and maybe try to identify cardholders who won't notice spurious charges, so they can tap the account regularly in the future. I guess the crooks have "costs of doing business" too and don't want to waste their time on someone who checks their statements diligently. Another possibility is that they have some sort of "trial and error" way of guessing account numbers and need to run a couple of charges to find out whether it is an actual account. They hope you won't notice a tiny charge (since banks sometime do a couple of tiny charges to verify bank accounts, maybe those types of charges are ones people are more used to and don't send up red flags right away).
In any event, such breaches have become pretty routine for me. I'd say that I probably have to cancel/replace one of my 5 credit cards at least once or twice a year. I use the different cards for very different types of transactions (some strictly online, some strictly physical, etc) but I have not found any correlations so far. They all get hacked with some frequency. Sad, but a fact of life.

 

[easysurfer]

I'm thinking too about the test charges. Had a similar thing happen to me on my Discover card years ago. A charge or two for $1 to Sony. Discover security had called me and asked if I made the charges and I said nope. Discover said crooks do that, putting charges for small amounts.

 

[brett]

Same thing. $2 parking fee in New York.

Called the card issuer. They cancelled my card. Someone in their fraud dept. called back and thanked me. And explained it.

I check our cards fairly often.

 

[Chuckanut]

Banks routinely will do small test deposits when you link accounts between different banks so you can do things like transfer money back and forth. You affirm the link is good by entering the two amounts on their website. Then they know it works. (Oh, they always withdraw the two tiny test amounts. No free lunch for the customer. )

This worries me. Could somebody be trying to link one of your accounts to a bad guy's account? Then drain your account? I would call your bank ASAP.

 

[Aerides]

Probably a test charge submitted when someone put that CC number on their profile. Small amounts like that confirm the card is good without typing up a credit limit.

And probably someone a fraudster knows to do - download uber, load the card, if Uber says it's good, they use it further.

With stolen plastics, the trick was to use it at a gas pump. Fraudsters want an anonymous way to check if a card is good before they run it up.

 

[Sunset]

Banks routinely will do small test deposits when you link accounts between different banks so you can do things like transfer money back and forth. You affirm the link is good by entering the two amounts on their website. Then they know it works. (Oh, they always withdraw the two tiny test amounts. No free lunch for the customer. )

This worries me. Could somebody be trying to link one of your accounts to a bad guy's account? Then drain your account? I would call your bank ASAP.

Initially I wondered that too, but I don't think that is this case.

• OP said the charges were on a credit card.
• Banks don't show you the small deposits they make to test the "other" account. Only shows at the "other" account.

 

[ERD50]

I checked my last statement and saw two charges pending, ...

I have all my cards and accounts alert me of any charge. It happens in almost real time on the cards (Oh, DW just got done grocery shopping, better put the lunch dishes away before she gets home!).

No way do I want to wait for a statement to come before I'm made aware of a fraudulent charge.

-ERD50

 

[jazz4cash]

I am trying to remember if I have any card statements that show pending charges....I don't think I do. When I check online there is a different area that shows pending charges for two of my accounts. I mostly get email alerts for the cards I use most.

 

[Sunset]

My CC's show alerts when the card is charged over $1.00 , so if this happens to me, I won't see it until I look at the account or the statement.

I wonder if I can set it lower than a $1.00 charge

 

[CaptTom]

My CC's show alerts when the card is charged over $1.00 , so if this happens to me, I won't see it until I look at the account or the statement.

One of my cards doesn't allow notifications lower than $1. Seems silly. I want to know every time my card is used. As discussed above, those tiny charges are often just the test to see if the card can be used (fraudulently) for a major purchase. Since that loss is on the CC company, you'd think they'd want us to pick up on the small charges, first.

I have noticed that the card issuers are offering more, and more useful, notification options. If everyone got text notifications of all charges, I'd imagine it would cut way down on fraud.

This is a good reminder to review the notification options the next time I log on to each account.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I haven’t been able to set alerts lower than $1.00. Too bad, as it seems like the crooks know it. I get text message alerts on both my credit cards, and bank balance and large bank transactions as well.

 

[donheff]

I have all my cards and accounts alert me of any charge. It happens in almost real time on the cards (Oh, DW just got done grocery shopping, better put the lunch dishes away before she gets home!).

No way do I want to wait for a statement to come before I'm made aware of a fraudulent charge.

-ERD50

I do the same thing. And have the same reaction to DW's charges.

 

[Aerides]

I don't get alerts and I don't worry about it. ETA: Ew also no I would not want DH getting alerts when I'm out shopping! We don't even do the phone tracking thing.

I worked in the industry long enough to know that if you have cards with good servicing issuers, any fraud will be simply and quickly swept away. The minor inconvenience of replacing cards will occur with any event, but if they charge 50c or run up the credit limit, it's no matter to the card holder..

That's if it's really fraud. A lot of customers will try to claim fraud for simple "don't know what that is" to double-charged, overcharged, subscription renewals they forgot... but once the customer service rep weeds that stuff out, if it's actually fraud you'll be fine.

And any bank/issuer that doesn't already handle stuff easily like that? Get off that bank and over to a major card issuer.

 

[Alan]

Just yesterday I was contacted by Amex about an attempted charge on "CASH APP". Something I've never heard of. This attempt was on my wife's card, which is on my Amex account but is seperate card and number. She has not used her card at all since 2016 so I have asked for that card to be cancelled altogether, we only ever use my card and then usually only on trips to the USA. I do keep a little spend online with my monthly Netflix payment just to keep it active, plus TurboTax once a year.

Given my wife's card hasn't been used anywhere in the world in years, I've no idea how they have found enough information to attempt to use it.

Merchant:CASH APP

Attempted Date: 11/12/21

Amount:1,545.00 USD

Original Statuseclined

 

[youbet]

The minor inconvenience of replacing cards will occur with any eventr

This is probably a personal thing, but to me the inconvenience of replacing a card is much more that "minor." It's a bummer.

 

[Alan]

This is probably a personal thing, but to me the inconvenience of replacing a card is much more that "minor." It's a bummer.

I agree, when you have automated payments it’s a real pain to have to move them to a new card

After our 3rd card had been compromised I designated a card that had all our automated payments and never ever used it for anything else.

 

[euro]

I agree, when you have automated payments it’s a real pain to have to move them to a new card

After our 3rd card had been compromised I designated a card that had all our automated payments and never ever used it for anything else.

Yes, I did that too and it worked great until: THAT designated card got corrupted. Having added ALL my automatic payments to this card, this meant a MAJOR effort to re-set them all.
Can't win

 

[ERD50]

I haven’t been able to set alerts lower than $1.00. Too bad, as it seems like the crooks know it. I get text message alerts on both my credit cards, and bank balance and large bank transactions as well.

All my cards can be set to < $0.00. But I do recall one (non-credit card I think, or maybe an old one I don't use any more) account that the min was $1.00, can't recall which though.

I agree with others, that's stupid. A transaction is a transaction, and if the bad guys are using the <$1 trick, then the financial institutions should get on board.

I don't get alerts and I don't worry about it. ETA: Ew also no I would not want DH getting alerts when I'm out shopping! We don't even do the phone tracking thing.

I worked in the industry long enough to know that if you have cards with good servicing issuers, any fraud will be simply and quickly swept away. The minor inconvenience of replacing cards will occur with any event, but if they charge 50c or run up the credit limit, it's no matter to the card holder..

That's if it's really fraud. A lot of customers will try to claim fraud for simple "don't know what that is" to double-charged, overcharged, subscription renewals they forgot... but once the customer service rep weeds that stuff out, if it's actually fraud you'll be fine.

And any bank/issuer that doesn't already handle stuff easily like that? Get off that bank and over to a major card issuer.

As just posted, not really so minor to some of us, it's an unwanted PITA.

I had a CC wrongly mark a couple legitimate charges as fraud. But they lock me out of my account, and when I call, they start asking me about recent charges. Well, w/o some context, like looking through my on-line transaction list, I can't answer these questions. One of them almost seemed like fraud, but it was a legit charge that came through something like 6 weeks after the actual event, maybe the business forgot to run it? So I thought it might be a double charge.

When I get the alerts near real time, I know then and there if it is legit. Don't need to dig through the memory banks - and if it was old like my example, I'd figure it out and be ready to tell the CC company it is legit. Hard to do when I'm locked out and have no records to review.

Geez, I don't do it to "track" DW, what kind of creep do you think I am (don't answer that! ) ? It's just good to know in almost real time legit charges and possible fraud.

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

I agree, when you have automated payments it’s a real pain to have to move them to a new card

After our 3rd card had been compromised I designated a card that had all our automated payments and never ever used it for anything else.

That's what I do. It's never been compromised. I assume it helps that it only is used in a handful of places, and the card is never outside the house.

Yes, I did that too and it worked great until: THAT designated card got corrupted. Having added ALL my automatic payments to this card, this meant a MAJOR effort to re-set them all.
Can't win

Sure it's a pain, but I'd rather go through it all once rather than double my chances of it happening at all. I keep a list of the auto payments on the card, with the websites and any info I need. It's all in one place, so having to do 6 of them or 12 of them just isn't that big a deal, versus not having to do it at all (hopefully).

-ERD50

 

[Aerides]

Well, sure, replacing cards is a PITA, but whether it's done because your alerts told you about a charge, or in reviewing a statement weeks later, the pain is the same.

It's not mitigated because you had alerts. The alerts just got you there quicker. Having alerts doesn't save you the hassle of card replacement and payment updates.

Not calling anyone creepy for having a check on their spouses use, just saying I would not like that.

 

[youbet]

Geez, I don't do it to "track" DW,

-ERD50

Well, you're missing out on some good times then!!

 

[COcheesehead]

I had a similar thing happen to me. I live in Colorado and had two small under $1 charges hit my card from a Coke a Cola distributor in Georgia. I got email alerts so I contacted my card company right away, but not before someone then went to Walmart and had some “fun”. My credit card company said the small charges were to check if the card was still valid before they presented it for larger amounts.

 

[ERD50]

Well, sure, replacing cards is a PITA, but whether it's done because your alerts told you about a charge, or in reviewing a statement weeks later, the pain is the same.

It's not mitigated because you had alerts. The alerts just got you there quicker. Having alerts doesn't save you the hassle of card replacement and payment updates.
...

Yes, it can.

The real time alerts help me keep up to date on legitimate charges. So when they suspect fraud, and ask me to verify some recent charges, I could tell them those are legit, not fraud at all. I've already seen them, and knew they were legit.

Without that, and being locked out of my account, I couldn't tell them if they were legit or not, so they would close the account and send me a new card and #. So yes, it can serve to keep from getting a new card issued.

-ERD50

 

[CaptTom]

A few points:

It's not just the hassle of changing card numbers. I want to catch the crooks BEFORE they rack up a big expense because it's the right thing to do. I like to think I'm a better person than to just say "Why should I care, it's not my money?"

I get that some spouses might find it creepy to have the other spouse know when they've made a purchase. I count myself fortunate that we're both on the same page with financial matters, and it's not an issue. It's even helpful sometimes so I know when she's done in the store.

Dedicating one credit card to recurring payments helps. I do that. But of course the credit card company can replace the card if your account showed up in some data breach. The fewer places the card is used, the less likely that'll happen. But there's no guarantee.