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Do you know where your credit card is?
(by Ed Flynn - April 23, 2008)
When I received the phone call from someone who identified herself as a representative of my credit card’s Fraud Bureau I was immediately suspicious. After all, I wasn’t born yesterday. Far from it. And, I’ve heard on television how, in order to be sure they’re “talking to the right person,” identity thieves will get you to reveal your Social Security number and other personal information.
But the lady didn’t ask for any information. She already had it. She was, indeed, from the credit card company and she informed me that they had canceled my card – she used the term “blocked” – because they had detected what appeared to be a “fraudulent pattern” of use. Since I knew my card hadn’t been lost or stolen, the news came as something of a shock.
As it turned out, the card I had just used that afternoon in this area was also being used that same day at a string of gas stations and convenience stores in . As I found out later when I received a list of the fraudulent charges so that I could verify that they weren’t mine, the thief had made a series of purchases, each one for around $100 or less and totaling slightly over $1,700, before the card number had been canceled. I have no idea what was purchased. I would guess cigarettes or something similar that could be resold since there’s a limit to how much gas you can put in a car.
I also don’t know just how the credit card company detected the fraud as quickly as it did. The lady said she couldn’t really tell me how but I assume the credit card companies, in an effort to prevent such fraud, have developed their own sophisticated computer software to detect unusual transactions. After all the same card being used in New Jersey and Georgia on the same day or being used more than a dozen times in the same day at gas stations doesn’t make sense.
But another more unsettling aspect to all this was the question of how – since my credit card was in my own wallet – could it have been used in ? The answer to that has to be, of course, that someone made a duplicate card, which in turn also meant that someone had managed to steal the information from my card. But when?
I did some research and learned that the most common way is something called “skimming,” in which a dishonest employee at a restaurant or store will run your credit card twice, once to record your legitimate purchase, and a second time in order to copy the information on your card. The employee can than either use that information themselves or more likely sell it to someone who has the expertise to make counterfeit cards. In my case, however, since the card was used at a store which reported an internal security breach involving thousands of cards, the probability is that is where the information was stolen.
Fortunately, the credit card will make good on the fraudulent purchases but it’s still a scary and unsettling feeling to know that someone can be running around the country and running up bills in your name.
So what can you do to avoid the same problem? Not much but there are a few tips from the American Association of Retired People:
Carry only one, or at most, two credit cards in case your wallet is lost or stolen.
Report a lost or stolen card immediately to the credit card company;
Don’t write PIN numbers on your credit card or carry them in your wallet;
When checking out at store registers, shield you credit card from people around you. Someone might be looking over your shoulder to copy your number;
Don’t give your credit number to telemarketers unless you are sure they represent a reputable company and you placed the call to them;
Don’t fall for some scam when someone calls to discuss a “computer problem” or some similar situation and says they need your credit car number to verify your account;
Make sure your transactions are accurate before you sign the slip and don’t leave blank spaces where an additional amount could be added;
Never sign a blank charge slip;
Keep track of your credit card receipt and check your monthly statements;
Shred anything with your credit card number on it. Thieves go through trash looking for such information.
Of course, as a last resort you could cut up all your cards and go back to the old fashion way of using cash. Except with my luck I’d get stuck with a bunch of counterfeit 20s.
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