Credit Card Fraud (maybe not from my trip but...)

[Truluv]

Just returned from my 1st Mediterranean cruise, and got my first fraud alert ever on one of the two credit cards that I carried with me.  It was a chip card.  I didn't keep the card in a RFID blocking wallet, but did leave it in my hotel & cruise safes when not in my possession.  A charge of a few hundred dollars was put through by an individual or company with a foreign name.  It may have absolutely nothing to do with my trip and my cruise, and the timing could be a coincidence.   The credit card representative mentioned that travel is an addtional risk factor, so I thought I'd mention it here.  I know it's common sense to keep an eye on your credit card charges, but it's still a surprise when something like this happens to you. 

[sparks1093]

Thank you for the timely reminder. The bad guys are everywhere.

[plaz70]

I've had that happen in while traveling through Canada and again when booking Airbnb's and train tickets in Spain and France from home.  Once I was using my card at a festival less then one mile from my house and all of a sudden it got declined.  I called immediately and it was turned back on once I told them the charges were legitimate. My husband had a fraud alert at home and he had not been traveling.  I've been called numerous times to verify charges that I made myself.  Sometimes, if I use it for something out of the ordinary, the card gets declined until I call.  It's good to have a card from a company that monitors for unusual activity.

[LHT28]

DH  has his skimmed in April

We just returned from a cruise  NYC  to the UK

We went shopping  here at home  his card was declined  @ 2 places 

I have a spousal card & mine was locked out as well

so came home & called the CC company

someone put  a test amount   $0 through on his card  from NY 

the CC locked the account

They unlocked mine but he had to wait for  a new card

No Idea how or where they got the card  number

He never used it in NYC

 

[clo]

A few years ago we (and our CCs) were in SE Asia when we got a notice about a fraudulent use in...Florida!  

[SRF]

I have had several cards compromised.  Funny thing is, although I travel a lot internationally, every time it happened here in the US.

 

We had a card skimmed at a gas station, that was then used for gas all the way up the East Coast.

 

I had one, that I found checking my account.  It seems that while I was outside the US, I was doing Uber and Lyft rides all over CA (I have Uber and Lyft accounts, but with other cards).  I saw two movies in FL, the same night, 80 miles apart.  And bought 4 airline tickets on American (I NEVER fly AA by choice), from Las Vegas to Charlotte.  This was cute, as there were names on all 4 tickets.

 

Others have had a single charge or two that got flagged, there were not mine.

 

And then there was the time my work travel card was turned off.  When I called, the representative stated it was triggered due to a charge in one country in the morning, and an attempted charge in another country that evening.  I asked the representative if he had every heard of a thing called an AIRPLANE.  And to look at the charges.  The morning one was a hotel (I checked out).  The evening one was 5 hours later, checking INTO a hotel.  Yes, this is very strange behavior.  And remember, this was my work card, that I travel internationally about 40% of the year. 😄

 

[chipmaster]

Fraud is everywhere and big business for simple opportunistic theft to organized big corporate like operations.    

 

In the end my response is to NEVER use Debit, always use credit card ( your loss is limited while debit you got no protection ).    I generally don't do anything special  just use it ( doesn't mean I flaunt my number/security code/PIN ).

 

My only case of fraud was multiple times with my Discover Card, all big CC have active AI monitoring of activity.  Actually the more you use it the more they are able to detect fraud, called machine learning.  IMHO the best things is pick one card use it fore everything and don't change your habits.  Of course when you go on vacation your habits change a bit, but actually if you say use it for meals, tickets, transportation, and leave a trail, it builds data detect fraud.   

Edited October 17, 2019 by chipmaster

[John Bull]

The only time we've experienced an attempt to use our credit card number was in the US shortly after a trip there.

That's the advantage of chip-and-PIN used in Europe (and, it seems, eventually catching on in the US).

When I used the card in the US nobody paid any attention to the name or signature on the card - I frequently used my partner's card, and my name's not Julie !!

 

But far too often my card has been declined, citing possible fraud. 

And like SRF's experience, these weren't for unusual transactions.

Added to that grief, on my last foreign foray when making a purchase my credit card was declined and  then my debit card was also declined - the credit card because of possible fraud, the debit card it transpires was because when I took it out years ago I opted for it to be used only to draw cash (PIN required) and not for purchases (PIN not required).

Fortunately I also had cash - the best back-up of them all.

 

JB 

[LHT28]

I travel with  2 or 3 CC so if one is compromised  I have a back up

Also a small amount of local currency 

That is just me

[hallasm]

43 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

That is just me

Actually also me - two MC and one Visa cards.

- however I do have the option to blog for usage In different  regions and Internet in my CC app.

Edited October 17, 2019 by hallasm

[cb at sea]

Call your card company and get the scoop!     You may need a new account number.

[Truluv]

I just noticed that the attempt to put through the charge was in the name of a Hindu God LOL.  I guess it's not surprising that the fraud dept. of my bank flagged it.  Yes, I'm getting a new card delivered within 24 hours, and the old card was already canceled.

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, chipmaster said:

Fraud is everywhere and big business for simple opportunistic theft to organized big corporate like operations.    

 

In the end my response is to NEVER use Debit, always use credit card ( your loss is limited while debit you got no protection ).    I generally don't do anything special  just use it ( doesn't mean I flaunt my number/security code/PIN ).

 

My only case of fraud was multiple times with my Discover Card, all big CC have active AI monitoring of activity.  Actually the more you use it the more they are able to detect fraud, called machine learning.  IMHO the best things is pick one card use it fore everything and don't change your habits.  Of course when you go on vacation your habits change a bit, but actually if you say use it for meals, tickets, transportation, and leave a trail, it builds data detect fraud.   

 

I agree with you about avoiding the debit card.  Can't say we never use it, but we try not to.   

 

The last fraud alert we have had on our Amex was someone trying to buy gaso in Florida.  We were in Denmark at the time.    

[sparks1093]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

I travel with  2 or 3 CC so if one is compromised  I have a back up

Also a small amount of local currency 

That is just me

Nope, we do the same so it's not just you.

[SRF]

Same here.

 

Except I don't have a MasterCard.

[LHT28]

10 minutes ago, SRF said:

Same here.

 

Except I don't have a MasterCard.

I don't either 😉

[slidergirl]

All of my fraud has been perpetrated in the US.   "Best" one: I was on a multi-week trip abroad (total coincidence).  When I got back, I had a bunch of FedEX envelopes at my door.  It was my FedEX number on them and different addresses, but all returned to sender (apparently me).  But, when I opened them, they contained checks to people with female names from a trucking company in Iowa.  Contacted my local PD to file a report.  A little investigation including FBI found out that it was a truck stop prostitution ring and they were sending "paychecks" to their "employees".  Multiple people had credit cards linked to their FedEX accounts used.   

Last Spring, I had someone use my AirBnB account to book a nice 7 day vacation in Punta Cana.  I will say both AirBnB and AMEX cleared that one up within a few hours of me reporting it.  

 

Now, I do my best to not have to link a credit card to anything...  

[njhorseman]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

I travel with  2 or 3 CC so if one is compromised  I have a back up

Also a small amount of local currency 

That is just me

We do the same.

[Warm Breezes]

I've had it happen twice.  Once was after a visit to Detroit and once when there was no travel involved.  Both times the credit card company caught the fraudulent activity an alerted me.  I also am in charge of reconciling credit cards for our company cards and we get fraud alerts at least 6x or more a year on company cards.  Again the credit card companies always catch the fraud going on almost immediately.  

 

As an additional warning, last year I received a letter in the mail from a credit card company that I had been approved for a credit card that it said I applied for and that my card was on the way.  I never applied for a card from this company.  The next day I received a note from the post office that per my request my mail was being temporarily forwarded.  I did not request that either.  I called the post office immediately and found that someone had put in a request to have my mail temporarily forwarded to an address in Florida.  I live in Michigan.  I told them I had not done that.  Some of my mail had already been sent to that address.  I had to go through all sorts of calls and forms to file a case about this with the Post Office.  Luckily most of the mail I receive  now days is junk mail as almost everything is paperless e-mail.  I also had to get a credit report done, alert the credit card company that was supposedly sending me a new card to cancel that card as I did not request it as well as alert the credit reporting agencies about the fraud that was happening to me.  I now make sure to watch my credit report regularly.

[ontheweb]

We sort of had the opposite happen. We were told the card was not approved at a museum. I had told the cc company what countries in Europe we would be in. When I was back at our hotel, I called the company and discovered the charge actually had gone through. I informed them that we were not admitted to the museum in question, and they immediately said they would erase the charge,

Edited October 17, 2019 by ontheweb
originally left out the important word NOT

[Toofarfromthesea]

3 hours ago, SRF said:

I have had several cards compromised.  Funny thing is, although I travel a lot internationally, every time it happened here in the US.

 

We had a card skimmed at a gas station, that was then used for gas all the way up the East Coast.

 

I had one, that I found checking my account.  It seems that while I was outside the US, I was doing Uber and Lyft rides all over CA (I have Uber and Lyft accounts, but with other cards).  I saw two movies in FL, the same night, 80 miles apart.  And bought 4 airline tickets on American (I NEVER fly AA by choice), from Las Vegas to Charlotte.  This was cute, as there were names on all 4 tickets.

 

Others have had a single charge or two that got flagged, there were not mine.

 

And then there was the time my work travel card was turned off.  When I called, the representative stated it was triggered due to a charge in one country in the morning, and an attempted charge in another country that evening.  I asked the representative if he had every heard of a thing called an AIRPLANE.  And to look at the charges.  The morning one was a hotel (I checked out).  The evening one was 5 hours later, checking INTO a hotel.  Yes, this is very strange behavior.  And remember, this was my work card, that I travel internationally about 40% of the year. 😄

 

 

Bold strategy, getting snarky with someone who is trying to protect your financial security.

[Kartgv]

MasterCard has a very good fraud detection system.   A couple of years ago, I made a series of online charitable donations from my own secure home computer - 3 of them, all the same amount.   Within half an hour, I had a call from my MasterCard fraud division asking about a donation - right amount, but to a group I'd never heard of.   We verified the good ones and I asked how they knew that the 4th one wasn't legitimate, but they wouldn't tell me.    Later, a person who worked in that field told me that they can identify the unique code of computers which initiate transactions; they knew that the last one was from a different source.    

[ger_77]

We were on a 4 week cruise/tour through SE Asia and the day after we returned home, we received a phone call from our CC company, saying that they would be sending me a new card.  I asked "Did I melt the other one with all my purchases?"  LOL  Apparently the last hotel we stayed at in Vancouver had been found to have a skimmer (it may have been under surveillance at the time) and ours was one of the cards it read.  Within 24 hours there was a new card at our door.   I was glad they were keeping track of us!

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[clo]

7 hours ago, LHT28 said:

I travel with  2 or 3 CC so if one is compromised  I have a back up

Also a small amount of local currency 

That is just me

AFTER we got pickpocketed in Barcelona, we now carry in our document case a debit and a credit card that have no relationship to what we walk around with and about $100.  We don't worry about local currency.  We were really down for the count for a couple of days.  Gratefully we were in an apt. so could cook.  One daughter wired us money which ISN'T cheap and we actually got one debit and one credit within a few days.  And since we were going to one of the top restaurants in the world for dinner....

[clo]

6 hours ago, slidergirl said:

Now, I do my best to not have to link a credit card to anything...  

Sincerely, I don't understand what that means.