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

[mayleeman]

10 hours ago, SRF said:

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.

Wow, you get around!

[CPT Trips]

Count us among those that travel with multiple credit cards as well as debit cards for ATM use. 

Sometimes the anti fraud algorithms do dumb stuff. 

We live in NJ, all of 15 minutes, on a non game day from the sports arenas in Philadelphia PA . . . 4 professional teams and other events. In little more than an hour I bought gas in NJ; drove across the river; bought game and event tickets at the Park, the Linc, and the arena only needing to drive through parking lots; and had my card declined at a supermarket back in NJ. 

Called the CC issuer, to be informed it was because my card was used out-of-state during the time I was in NJ. Fortunately they approved the reprocessed charge (smallest of the bunch).

I can only imagine if it were the Rhein I was crossing rather than the Delaware.

 

[mayleeman]

I informed both my credit cards of our travel plans for our Oct 20. They didn't care about the first 2 nights travelling in our home state, but wanted to know the day we were going to a new state on the way to Ft L. Some people say you don't need to report travel plans, but the amount of time spent with me on the phone asking questions about which countries we would be in seems to weigh against the "don't bother" advice.

[sparks1093]

8 hours ago, mayleeman said:

I informed both my credit cards of our travel plans for our Oct 20. They didn't care about the first 2 nights travelling in our home state, but wanted to know the day we were going to a new state on the way to Ft L. Some people say you don't need to report travel plans, but the amount of time spent with me on the phone asking questions about which countries we would be in seems to weigh against the "don't bother" advice.

I don't do this by phone. I inform my bank in person about where we'll be for my debit card. My credit cards all have a feature online that allows me to report it. The last time I used that feature I was told that I don't need to do that any longer since the card has a chip, so I go by what the card issuer tells me.

[Hlitner]

We have had cards compromised, several times, while traveling around the world.  That is why most frequent travelers carry 1 or more back-ups and also should have a least 1 ATM backup.  Losing money (for those in the USA) is generally not a problem but it can be very inconvenient if your card gets "locked" by the credit card company....if you do not have other cards.  Getting a replacement is difficult if you are on the move.

 

Hank

[TNcruising02]

Many years ago, someone stole my credit card number and made around a $1,000 worth of charges.  They were ordering items online and having them delivered locally.  I reported it to the police and post office.  The bank refunded the money.  Someone tried to get a Sears credit card in my name, but I was in the office next to the person who was verifying my employment so I was able to stop it.  Another time someone opened up a cell phone account in my husband's name.

After all of this, I put a credit freeze with all three credit companies.  I temporarily unfreeze them when I need credit for something.  

I always log on to my bank account and report travel information.  I have alerts so that I get daily emails for online purchases, check purchases, and my bank balances.  I have had the bank text me to approve purchases when I have made several within a few minutes.  I also have extra security when it comes to logging into my bank account.  You can never be too careful.  I only carry cash when I am in ports and leave my cards in the cabin safe.  We aren't big spenders, so that works for us.

[SRF]

18 hours ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

 

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

 

Let's see.  I have a work card to travel internationally.  I DO travel internationally a lot.  MANY times in a year, I am in a hotel in one country one night and in a different hotel in a different country the next night.  That is called TRAVELING.

 

And they shut off my card for a normal travel situation?

 

Contact me if they have concerns, YES.  Shut off the card without warning?  I don't think so.

 

And I am sure if I had talked to a supervisor, their talk with that employee would have been more than snarky.

[SRF]

11 hours ago, mayleeman said:

I informed both my credit cards of our travel plans for our Oct 20. They didn't care about the first 2 nights travelling in our home state, but wanted to know the day we were going to a new state on the way to Ft L. Some people say you don't need to report travel plans, but the amount of time spent with me on the phone asking questions about which countries we would be in seems to weigh against the "don't bother" advice.

 

It depends on the card company.  AMEX no longer wants to know.  As do several other card issues of mine.

 

In fact, they have no way of tracking this info if you call them.

 

So the advice is, do what YOUR card companies want you to do.  NONE of mine want to be notified.

[sparks1093]

1 minute ago, SRF said:

 

Let's see.  I have a work card to travel internationally.  I DO travel internationally a lot.  MANY times in a year, I am in a hotel in one country one night and in a different hotel in a different country the next night.  That is called TRAVELING.

 

And they shut off my card for a normal travel situation?

 

Contact me if they have concerns, YES.  Shut off the card without warning?  I don't think so.

 

And I am sure if I had talked to a supervisor, their talk with that employee would have been more than snarky.

Was the employee you were talking to the one that turned your card off?

[clo]

2 hours ago, TNcruising02 said:

The bank refunded the money. 

The banks have no choice in the matter.  You're only responsible for the first $50 and our banks have never even invoked that.

[Toofarfromthesea]

2 hours ago, SRF said:

 

Let's see.  I have a work card to travel internationally.  I DO travel internationally a lot.  MANY times in a year, I am in a hotel in one country one night and in a different hotel in a different country the next night.  That is called TRAVELING.

 

And they shut off my card for a normal travel situation?

 

Contact me if they have concerns, YES.  Shut off the card without warning?  I don't think so.

 

And I am sure if I had talked to a supervisor, their talk with that employee would have been more than snarky.

 

Well that explains it, they just didn't realize who you were.

[slidergirl]

16 hours ago, clo said:

Sincerely, I don't understand what that means.

 

You buy something online with a CC - they ask if you want to put this one on file as a default card.   Say No.

For AirBnB, they want a CC on your account.

If you Uber, they want a CC on your account.

You have a frequent flyer/guest account - you can put a CC on your profile as the one to use.

 

Things like that.  

[mayleeman]

4 hours ago, SRF said:

So the advice is, do what YOUR card companies want you to do. 

One of mine that wanted the specific itinerary info this week, and that shut my card down in April when we used it in Florida when we hadn't notified them we were leaving SC, is Synchrony Bank, which has been mentioned several times in CCritic as not wanting to be informed.

 

An application of the "All generalizations are false, including this one" rule.

Edited October 18, 2019 by mayleeman

[SRF]

5 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Was the employee you were talking to the one that turned your card off?

 

He was the one explaining the "suspicious" activity.

 

And after I mentioned airplanes, he still did not get it.  I had to carefully explain that I checked out of one hotel, went to the airport, boarded a flight, flew 4 hours to another country, then tried to check into a hotel.

 

And then still tried to tell me it was suspicious because it involved two countries.

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, SRF said:

 

He was the one explaining the "suspicious" activity.

 

And after I mentioned airplanes, he still did not get it.  I had to carefully explain that I checked out of one hotel, went to the airport, boarded a flight, flew 4 hours to another country, then tried to check into a hotel.

 

And then still tried to tell me it was suspicious because it involved two countries.

 

Well, I think it was suspicious because it involved two countries.    But, your explanation certainly should have resolved the problem. 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sorry this happened to you.

 

Sadly it can happen to any one, any time, any where.

[clo]

6 hours ago, slidergirl said:

 

You buy something online with a CC - they ask if you want to put this one on file as a default card.   Say No.

For AirBnB, they want a CC on your account.

If you Uber, they want a CC on your account.

You have a frequent flyer/guest account - you can put a CC on your profile as the one to use.

 

Things like that.  

Thanks   I understand now.  There are two companies that I use more than any others and  I do have my card on file with them.  What we've recently changed is that anything we order online isn't charged to the card that all our recurring bills are charged to.  That's the worst part.  Have to get a new account and then have to switch over every one.  And it's a lot of them.

[geoherb]

My only case of credit card fraud happened after staying at a boutique hotel in Fort Lauderdale. My mother, though, was the victim of the Target credit card breach. There were several fraudulent charges made in Atlanta, which is about 400 miles away. She was incapable of traveling at the time.

[TruckerDave]

I used to get mine declined often. I might buy my morning coffee in Iowa,  lunch in Indiana then dinner in PA all in the same day. Then the next day might buy a new tire in NY (thankfully those days are over as I am now a company driver and no longer an owner operator) and so on. The kicker was that the big purchases usually went through no problem, it was the coffee or hot dog that got declined.  I would then have to get on the phone (after paying with another card) and explain (again) that I was a truck driver and travel all over the country and charges in different states was normal for me.  Eventually after a number of years they finally got it straight and I stopped having the issues. 

[SRF]

On 10/18/2019 at 4:56 PM, ldubs said:

 

Well, I think it was suspicious because it involved two countries.    But, your explanation certainly should have resolved the problem. 

 

I do this 40% of the year, and normally visit at least 2 countries on each trip. Sometimes more. So I do this all the time.

 

This summer, I checked out of hotel in Frankfurt, checked in in Central Asia same day.  A week later, out of one country in Central Asia to another.  Then out of that one, back to Frankfurt.  Next trip, US hotel to Uruguay, then Uruguay to Paraguay.  Next trip Frankfurt to Africa same day.  One African country to another, same day.  Then one more time, same day.  Next trip, Seoul to South East Asia, same day.  One country to another, same day.  Then SEA to Seoul, this one was checkout late in the evening, then checking in early the next morning.

 

Next trip, I will fly US to Paris.  Overnight in Paris.  Check out of my hotel.  Fly to Africa (not only a different country but a different CONTINENT), Check in same day.  Fly from Africa to Paris.  Over night.  Paris to Africa again, same day. 

 

My work card is a TRAVEL CARD.  And my organization travels internationally MOST of the time.

 

 

[clo]

1 hour ago, SRF said:

My work card is a TRAVEL CARD. 

Do I remember that you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card 🙂

[mommio]

About 20 yrs ago I got a call regarding suspicious cc usage.  "Did you travel out of the country, like Hawaii?"  It took all I had not to laugh and explained to the caller that Hawaii was part of the US, and had been for quite a while 🙄

[slidergirl]

6 hours ago, SRF said:

 

I do this 40% of the year, and normally visit at least 2 countries on each trip. Sometimes more. So I do this all the time.

 

This summer, I checked out of hotel in Frankfurt, checked in in Central Asia same day.  A week later, out of one country in Central Asia to another.  Then out of that one, back to Frankfurt.  Next trip, US hotel to Uruguay, then Uruguay to Paraguay.  Next trip Frankfurt to Africa same day.  One African country to another, same day.  Then one more time, same day.  Next trip, Seoul to South East Asia, same day.  One country to another, same day.  Then SEA to Seoul, this one was checkout late in the evening, then checking in early the next morning.

 

Next trip, I will fly US to Paris.  Overnight in Paris.  Check out of my hotel.  Fly to Africa (not only a different country but a different CONTINENT), Check in same day.  Fly from Africa to Paris.  Over night.  Paris to Africa again, same day. 

 

My work card is a TRAVEL CARD.  And my organization travels internationally MOST of the time.

 

 

Sometimes, it may not be that you have traveled a bunch, but it may be that a specific country may be flagged as one that has a lot of CC fraud.   That your card is used rapid-fire from one continent to another could be an "if then" flag in the software's algorithm of automatically attempting to find/limit fraudulent use when card numbers are passed among unsavory groups around the world.  Just a thought.  

[ldubs]

12 hours ago, SRF said:

 

I do this 40% of the year, and normally visit at least 2 countries on each trip. Sometimes more. So I do this all the time.

 

This summer, I checked out of hotel in Frankfurt, checked in in Central Asia same day.  A week later, out of one country in Central Asia to another.  Then out of that one, back to Frankfurt.  Next trip, US hotel to Uruguay, then Uruguay to Paraguay.  Next trip Frankfurt to Africa same day.  One African country to another, same day.  Then one more time, same day.  Next trip, Seoul to South East Asia, same day.  One country to another, same day.  Then SEA to Seoul, this one was checkout late in the evening, then checking in early the next morning.

 

Next trip, I will fly US to Paris.  Overnight in Paris.  Check out of my hotel.  Fly to Africa (not only a different country but a different CONTINENT), Check in same day.  Fly from Africa to Paris.  Over night.  Paris to Africa again, same day. 

 

My work card is a TRAVEL CARD.  And my organization travels internationally MOST of the time.

 

 

 

"If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium"  Haha

 

I'll never whine again about flight schedules.  

[SRF]

23 hours ago, clo said:

Do I remember that you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card 🙂

 

No, this is a work card.