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Scorpio64

Credit Card Fraud

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My father-in-law passed away last week and we have been reviewing his finances.  Somehow he managed to sneak out of the hospital in a near comatose state and get a body piercing and visit dunkin doughnuts. He even managed to use his ez pass from the grave somehow.

 

I have never had to deal with this sort of thing but my wife and I are going to try and get some kind of investigation going.  If anyone here has had to deal with cc fraud before I sure would appreciate any pointers on how to go about this.

 

 

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A few years back I decided to reduce my available credit by canceling cards and credit lines with zero balances only used once or not at all.  Never had any fraud associated with these accounts. Called the creditor to cancel and close the accounts at my request. About a month later I get statements showing charges applied to these accounts that are now closed.  Tell me how that happens.  Had a terrible time writing letters getting the charges reversed.  Sometimes months.  Then credit report shows these accounts in arrears after I filed formal complaint of fraud.  Then have credit problems due to these accounts with the accounts I am using as they get reports I'm not paying these fraudulent charges. Even had to write to the reviewing agencies stating the reports were wrong.  What a sh$t storm.  All because I did not want these open credit accounts on my report to improve my credit score.   All I can say is stay after the creditors to correct the problems. If MIL was on the accounts, close them and open up new ones for her if necessary. This info is now on the street and will continue to turn up unless the accounts are reported as closed. 

 

Some of the charges I protested came back from the CC company as valid after their investigations, those we the worst to get reversed.  Tell me this fraud did not originate within the company. 

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My father-in-law passed away last week and we have been reviewing his finances. Somehow he managed to sneak out of the hospital in a near comatose state and get a body piercing and visit dunkin doughnuts. He even managed to use his ez pass from the grave somehow.

 

I have never had to deal with this sort of thing but my wife and I are going to try and get some kind of investigation going. If anyone here has had to deal with cc fraud before I sure would appreciate any pointers on how to go about this.

Scorpio, sorry for your family's loss.

 

First call the Police and file a report. Once you have a case number call the CC companies and open a claim. They are generally helpful. The CC companies want their money or their pound of flesh so they will investigate and then refer their findings to LE when they have developed a suspect.

 

Tbill, that sucks bro. That's either an inside job, or they are careless with thier trash/data security on closed accounts.

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I'm going through some CC fraud at the moment... Somehow I used a card that expired 3 years ago to buy groceries in California; a place I've never been.

 

I haven't involved the police yet, but the CC company was understanding & helpful.

 

I hope your case is resolved quickly and without too much stress.

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Don't waste your time with the police. They will do nothing unless the fraud was done locally. Call the credit card company and they will just open up a case. They will immediately take any questionable charges off your card. Credit card fraud is so rampant that's its commonplace nowadays. I fault the credit card companies for not adopting better technology. 

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^ yup that's been my experience too. my wife and I got hit 3 times in the past 2 years. we just call the CC company and dispute the charges and they open an investigation and credit the account and freeze the cards.

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Don't waste your time with the police. They will do nothing unless the fraud was done locally. Call the credit card company and they will just open up a case.

 

The charges were made in ocean county.  We believe it may have been someone from a rehab center he was sent to after a surgery.  To complicate matters, my MIL passed away about 12 years ago and my FIL has had a domestic partner for the past five years.  I have seen her family and I'll just say they seem the type to take advantage of this situation. 

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Scorpio - Sorry for your loss!

 

Since you should have a copy of the Death Cert. - simply contact any / all

creditors that you know of and notify them that this is a fraud report and you

will provide the DC as proof, then request the accounts to be closed (if not

already)

I guess you could contact the police, but in the past when I had to deal with

a cc fraud, the  card company handled the report and investigation.

 

Good Luck!

JT

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Don't waste your time with the police. They will do nothing unless the fraud was done locally. Call the credit card company and they will just open up a case. They will immediately take any questionable charges off your card. Credit card fraud is so rampant that's its commonplace nowadays. I fault the credit card companies for not adopting better technology. 

 

I was a victim of full blown identity theft in 2007.  Among the gift cards from all the major retailers, such as 3k from home depot, $600 walmart, $1500 Toy-r-us, $2k from Lowes, etc) They tried to get a home equity line of credit on a home that didn't exist...damn near got it to.  They also applied for a car loan at one of those "drive away today" places.  It was a very busy 4 day weekend for the thieves.

 

Anyway, your first statement is patently incorrect unless the fraud was limited to one stolen card.    Call the local PD, make an appt and get a police report.  This is the FIRST step you have to take for most of the retailers to believe it wasn't you.  Then contact Experian as they are the most helpful.

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I was a victim of full blown identity theft in 2007.  Among the gift cards from all the major retailers, such as 3k from home depot, $600 walmart, $1500 Toy-r-us, $2k from Lowes, etc) They tried to get a home equity line of credit on a home that didn't exist...damn near got it to.  They also applied for a car loan at one of those "drive away today" places.  It was a very busy 4 day weekend for the thieves.

 

Anyway, your first statement is patently incorrect unless the fraud was limited to one stolen card.    Call the local PD, make an appt and get a police report.  This is the FIRST step you have to take for most of the retailers to believe it wasn't you.  Then contact Experian as they are the most helpful.

I did that the first time around. I got a police report and guess what. It was a total waste of time. The credit card handled everything and not once did they ask me for a police report. Even the detective who took my report told me to call the credit card company as they would handle it. My card info was stolen 3 times and never had a problem dealing with either Chase, Amex, & Capital One. OP had an issue with a stolen credit card, not identity theft. 

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I did that the first time around. I got a police report and guess what. It was a total waste of time. The credit card handled everything and not once did they ask me for a police report. Even the detective who took my report told me to call the credit card company as they would handle it. My card info was stolen 3 times and never had a problem dealing with either Chase, Amex, & Capital One. OP had an issue with a stolen credit card, not identity theft. 

 

One credit card, yes, it's a waste of time.   Ezpass + credit card?  Sounds like a bit more than a generic credit card theft.  

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I've been victim of full blown identity fraud a decade ago. It still follows me around here and there to this day

 

6 months ago I went on all 3 bureaus and did permanent credit freeze. Now I sleep sound at night my credit is locked down. It's simple. All done online

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How do they get your informantion to steal it. Ive been using CC for years with no issues. My mother had hers stolen and my exwife had hers stolen by those Nigerian bus ticket sales people in the city a few years back. I might have had it done come to think of it. Cabelas called me one time and said they were issuing me a new card and the old one was no longer good. Never had a bad charge though.

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Usually, the problem is using a card at a hijacked retail outlet, or at one that has an employee being paid to skim cc numbers. Ours was stolen at the Spider-Man photo stop in universal studios once. Then at a gas station at the entrance to the holland tunnel.e

 

The crooks also put skimmers at ATMs. Even the drive through ATMs at a legit bank over a weekend after the bank has closed.

 

They also can use tools to infect pcs to do screen grabs and log keystrokes. These tasks are eminently easy for someone who knows what they're doing.

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Usually, the problem is using a card at a hijacked retail outlet, or at one that has an employee being paid to skim cc numbers. Ours was stolen at the Spider-Man photo stop in universal studios once. Then at a gas station at the entrance to the holland tunnel.e

 

The crooks also put skimmers at ATMs. Even the drive through ATMs at a legit bank over a weekend after the bank has closed.

 

They also can use tools to infect pcs to do screen grabs and log keystrokes. These tasks are eminently easy for someone who knows what they're doing.

This^^^^

Some are bots jus hitting numbers. Starts with a small charge as a test.

Waitresses, gas attendent's on the scam also.

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Listen, this is very simple.

 

1. Just call the CC company. I'm astounded you haven't done this already.

2. make sure you and your family are not on the hook for any of those charges. 99.9% sure you're ok on this count.

3. let them worry about the other shit. It's not your problem. Let the cards fall where they may. If it winds up being somebody's brother screw him he'll get what he deserves.

 

Get on with your life. 

 

This reminds me of the thread about what to do when you see kids breaking into your car and you're safe inside your house. As any anti-gunner worth her salt might say, "They let you guys have guns?"

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My ATM card got skimmed in Ukraine at a secure bank with a guard present.  Didn't matter.

A month later, I was in India and called home to say hi, and my wife asks me why I'm taking out the max $400 per day?  Uh-oh.

 

The bank found the activity was going on in Russia at the same time I was in India.  I had to prove I didn't have a sister before they took responsibility for the $8 grand gone.  Their only suggestion for the future was to open a side account and just fund it with enough to get through the next trip.  The trouble is, I had to pay cash for my lodging, so if the side account gets hacked, I'm still out the cash I need to settle the bill. The whole situation is a mess. Walking in with several thousand in cash, assuming I could find a forex kiosk that deals in dollar to Hrivna conversion in the first place, is not a good idea either.

 

On the other hand, I have a Chase Visa card that showed a mysterious $18 charge on it one day.  Chase immediately closed the card, removed the charge on the spot, and overnighted a new card.  I was surprised how easy it was in a single phone call.

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SUPPOSEDLY we're moving to rfid type credit cards by the end of this year. i think i saw a notice with my last merchant statement saying i had till october of this year to upgrade my machine.

 

I don't think you have to but from what I understand if you don't, you will be liable for any fraud if you don't have the new EMV system. They went live with this system a couple of years ago in Europe and credit card fraud was drastically reduced right away. It will be a lot tougher to skim cards with this new chip. 

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I've been victim of full blown identity fraud a decade ago. It still follows me around here and there to this day

 

6 months ago I went on all 3 bureaus and did permanent credit freeze. Now I sleep sound at night my credit is locked down. It's simple. All done online

What do you mean by this? Can you explain the process?

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My CC # has been stolen three times. As long as they nullify the charges there's nothing more you can do or expect. 

 

 

This has happened to me perhaps a dozen times over about 15 years, maybe a little less. I call the company and they take the charges off.

 

Expired cards and canceled cards? I have an interesting one. They got me on a card I never used. Not sure how they did that.

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Scorpio, sorry for your family's loss.

 

First call the Police and file a report. Once you have a case number call the CC companies and open a claim. They are generally helpful. The CC companies want their money or their pound of flesh so they will investigate and then refer their findings to LE when they have developed a suspect.

 

Tbill, that sucks bro. That's either an inside job, or they are careless with thier trash/data security on closed accounts.

Thats a good point, I would also contact a lawyer

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I've had an impossible time challenging fraudulent charges with Discover; nothing like the experiences others are reporting here with Visa and MasterCard.

 

My parents had a medic alert monitoring system from Connect America/Medical Alert (and this is also a warning to avoid doing business with them at all costs).   When my parents abruptly had to move into assisted living and had the phone disconnected at the house, Connect America/Medical Alert didn't detect that the phone was dead--despite that being one of the conditions they say will trigger an alert.    This went on for several months; they kept billing for monitoring, but never realized (or cared) that they weren't monitoring anything.   The service was cancelled, the hardware was returned, I had a return receipt in-hand...and they kept billing.   And Discover backed them, through a dozen calls and letters challenging the bills.    Canceling the card was the only way to make it stop.

 

And that was after proving that Connect America wasn't monitoring the system for at least 4 months (no phone line, no hardware).   The nagging question in my mind is whether they were monitoring at any point in the years my parents were paying them.

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The problem could be deeper. There is huge market for information related to just deceased. Anything from social security numbers, address,  to CC etc goes on sale.

 

As families are grieving, they often dont have time to pay attention to finances of just deceased. Crooks bank on that and take advantage. 

 

Get a police report (even if they dont do anything), freeze the credit. All three credit bureau offer the facility.

 

Credit / Security freeze is free for NJ residents. Do not pay.

 

Do not forget to keep pin / passwords written down in a safe place. You need them to unfreeze.

 

http://www.transunion.com/personal-credit/credit-disputes/credit-freezes.page

 

https://www.experian.com/consumer/security_freeze.html

 

https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp

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