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Credit Card Fraud
Lindsay Lohan
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So weird thing - I went to pay my credit card and found it was nearly at the limit due to a large charge at Target. It's exactly $180 which seems like a really exact figure for a charge (making me think giftcards since they aren't taxable). It was from Monday, a day I went from home to work to home so I know it wasn't me. However, my card claims it was done with my physical card, a card that hasn't left my side. I'm disputing it now, but how in the heck can that happen?
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Is this a debit card by chance? Card swiper on ATM machines isn't uncommon.
I think you're right on the gift card thing, that's a pretty exact amount and they're likely using the gift cards as a mechanism to launder is to their purchases become untrackable.
Basically:
- Install card swiper on commonly used ATMs
- Swipe a few hundred cards over the next few hours
- Make a copy of the cards with a credit card machine
- Use at target, get giftcards, maybe self checkout to draw less attention to the fake cards
- Use the gift cards immediately the day after and hope no one's done a chargeback on it yet
- hope no one can tie you to the giftcards/fake cards
I've got my credit card with me and Target says they can search for receipts using it, so I'm going visit them after work.
So I'm guessing even though I have my card in hand, I need to get it cancelled/reissued as well.
The bank is required by law to give you the money back within 10 business days, but it's usually closer to 2 or 3 days. This is called a provisional credit, and it is your money as unless the bank decides the charge was not fraud, which you will have a chance to appeal if that does happen. You will be given a new card as well, so if you need money and can't make it to a branch soon go to the atm and withdraw the cash before calling the bank. When I worked credit card fraud I had to cancel the card the second you confirmed a transaction was fraudulent, it was not reversible, and at least half the people then bitched me out because they had no money and no way to get it. Please don't be like that when you call the bank, they are on your side but are constrained by law and bank policy.
Your card company knows as well as we do that your "physical card" is a rectilinear solid of the cheapest, most abundant material other than human sorrow and can be duplicated with a 100$ attachment for a laser printer and that it means nothing the card was "physically" there.
You are legally not on the hook for this, but you may have to assert yourself pretty hard with your bank. Do you carry other loans (mortgage, car) with the same bank by any chance? Going into a branch and asking a "personal banker" what to do can net results if they are invested in your retention.
I host a podcast about movies.
Is it really even worth taking the steps to try to get Target to print me a receipt or should I just let them do their thing in fraud and handle it?
For $180 no one's even going to care. You shouldn't get any resistance from the bank.
Call the bank, tell them it wasn't you. They'll cancel the card number (you don't really have a choice in this, once it's been used for fraud the number's no good).
Most places will credit you on the spot, especially for amounts that low.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Yeah, that one is probably the one.
Avoid using credit cards at restaurants unless they're fast food. It sucks, but that's where I've had mine stole twice. Turns out local restaurants hiring cheap college dropouts don't really have swell workers!
It's really usually not this, it's far more likely to be someone who got a mass dump of numbers somewhere.
The solution is really to just keep a small limit card that won't get a thief far and live your life, if you ask me.
I host a podcast about movies.
This.
Call your CC. Instead of you having to run around and do all the work, let the 2 companies (Target/your CC) work it out. The transaction has to be proved to the CC company that you paid for it.
Wife disputed a charge on our CC for an online order we placed. The company we ordered from gave us a receipt and then charged a different amount. We disputed the whole thing, cancelled the order and got all the money back. Our CC was suprisingly helpful and had our back.
I host a podcast about movies.
I had this happen to me last year - my credit card had not left my side at all, save for two new restaurants that I had visited (one time each) over two months, for lunch...and somehow between those two places, my card info was skimmed, they made their own physical card, and racked up a few hundred dollars at two Staples stores in two towns (giftcards as well), and $183.something at a Rite Aid (HOW).
Pretty scary! But I filed a police report with the cops (who seemed bored by the whole thing, but managed to get the security footage of the two guys), and my credit card company refunded the charges, cancelled my card and issued a new one.
It may take a little while to credit you the damages, but I don't suspect you'll have any issue.
Be on the lookout for any paperwork that they send you, a good majority of claims that i've seen of this nature are denied merely because of the fact that there wasn't a written statement returned. Also, don't bother with the merchant here, the sales draft they pull more than likely only has a squigly line instead of a sig.
You are on the right track already, and resolution should be quick. You do not have to go to the police unless it's continuing to happen, then ID theft may be a possibility.
Good times.
If you have a chip card, and the purchase was done as a pin and chip transaction, then it's going to be tough proving it's not you. If it was swipe and sign, it shouldn't be a problem.