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da ([personal profile] da) wrote2006-05-12 11:36 am
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fraud

Guess it had to happen eventually. Seems someone snarfed my (PC Financial) credit-card number, apparently just a few days ago.

I got a call last night from their fraud dep't, called them back just now, and we came up with 5 things I didn't authorize. Four were test-transactions of $1, and one was some sort of internet purchase for $38 (ccbill.com).

For a while I thought there was another, a flight on usair, till I realized that I did actually buy that plane ticket a week ago. (in contrast with the /other/ ticket I bought more recently).

Now I'm gonna be suspicious about all of the places I use this card at. (local gas station; grocery store...)

Grump. Grump. What a time-waster. And whoever did it, didn't even do it competently enough to make it really worth their time either; $45 fraud isn't much to speak of.
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[identity profile] nobodyhere.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
That's pretty impressive they caught it on a $38 transaction. I buy so much stuff online I don't know how any of my credit cards would notice a transaction wasn't legitimate.

(I went and checked my bill online after reading this since I imagine we frequent some of the same places. Nothing unusual, thankfully.)

[identity profile] epi-lj.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 04:01 pm (UTC)(link)
ccbill.com is primarily used for memberships to porn sites.

[identity profile] da-lj.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
why doesn't that surprise me at all?

[identity profile] epi-lj.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 04:02 pm (UTC)(link)
(...and hence maybe it *was* worth their time, just in terms of getting access to some porn they wanted access to without someone else with access to their card finding out.)

[identity profile] dawn-guy.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
It's nice to hear about banks doing good things, given how folks usually only swap stories about the bad experiences.

I have distinct activity patterns on my credit accounts to I hope it'd be easy for the robots to find and report on out-of-profile patterns for my usage. In reality, I expect it'd take a fraud-specific pattern like yours to actually catch thieves.

The only class of place I'll let someone take my CC out of my sight is restaurants. Any place else, I'll pay cash if I can't either swipe my card myself (gas stations) or see it being swiped (most shops). I've heard an acquaintance describe her fraud experience a few years ago that was traced back to using a card at the gas station at the corner of Belmont and Glasgow, where the attendant will take your card and return with it.

[identity profile] dawn-guy.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)
... and I do buy things online, but only with merchants I know (and whose web presence I know) well enough to trust.

[identity profile] quingawaga.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
gas station at the corner of Belmont and Glasgow

Holy heck! I used my credit card there once, but only because I didn't have cash and it's a pain to use debit at full-serve gas stations. Eep. Was a while ago, though.

[identity profile] da-lj.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Now that's suspicious.

Guess which corner gas station I won't be using any more.

[identity profile] melted-snowball.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh.

What a pain. Sorry to hear about it.

[identity profile] ex-halfwitte432.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Congratulations, someone bought porn on your credit card.

[identity profile] thingo.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 12:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, dang. No automated fraud system would ever pull that transaction out of my credit card record.

Sorry, I felt it was time for the required porn joke. Anyway, I'm guessing it's the one-dollar transactions that came off as strange.

[identity profile] ex-halfwitte432.livejournal.com 2006-05-13 03:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually, pre-authorizations of one dollar are not uncommon, especially when the service provider is offering some sort of introductory free time.

D, look out for MSN Online Services charges on your CC in a couple of months.

[identity profile] da-lj.livejournal.com 2006-05-14 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
D, look out for MSN Online Services charges on your CC in a couple of months.

Hell, the card number was frozen on Thursday, so whoever made the charges ain't gonna get their money, one way or the other... And it was cancelled on Friday.

New card arriving in 7-10 days, accompanied by an affadavit of the charges that weren't mine.

Seems a well-oiled system.

[identity profile] pnijjar.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Are there ways to catch such fraudsters? Or is somebody off enjoying free porn without worrying about being caught?

[identity profile] da-lj.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
If there are enough patterns of theft, they can track it. Databases 'r' ghod, after all.

[livejournal.com profile] publius_ovidus has an awesome story of actually catching the thieves himself, after they made thousands of dollars of charges and a bunch of dumb mistakes.

So... both of your statements are likely true.

[identity profile] mynatt.livejournal.com 2006-05-12 08:57 pm (UTC)(link)
That sucks... given how easy it is to do this, though, I'm astonished that it doesn't happen more often. Even better: when I worked at a gas station for a summer in high school, people would routinely forget their cards on the counter and drive away.

Hopefully my bank will be as vigilant, should I ever be defrauded by such a small amount.
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