Warning - credit card cloned

[kellya1]

Hi all

 

Just wanted to warn you of my credit card nightmare...

 

Returning from my recent cruise on AOS I checked my bank statement and found a payment to "Adventure Seas" for $350. Thinking RCCL had wrongly charged me I called the customer services department who checked their billings and found this wasn't on their records, stating that it would appear as "adventure of the seas" or "royal caribbean". When checking the other transactions I indeed found that this was the case.

 

I called the credit card company who explained that it was a cruise ship who made the charge, and the transaction was made on the 30th June at midnight and I had signed the receipt - well I left AOS on the 28th and come midnight on the 30th I was safely tucked up in bed in London!

 

So I'm fraud victim! I only used my card onboard, Barbados and St Thomas...whoever did this must have known I was on the ship to make it look like an non suspicious RCCL charge on my statement. Very clever!

 

Just wanted to warn you all...avoid using your card if possible, but if you do, check your statement with a fine tooth comb!

 

Kelly :)

[pmshirl]

I sure hope you disputed the charge with your CC company!

[kellya1]

Hi Shirl

 

Of course! Thankfully I can prove it. I just hope they catch the clever little so and so's! Somehow I doubt they will...:mad:

[ken_nyc]

Shirl thank you for the warning! I am glad you have the proof and will not be held responsible for the charge!

[sailingawaysoon]

Thanks for the heads up. Sorry for your inconvenience...we always check our statements very carefully. I hope they catch the person responsible. Happy future cruising.

[sandancer]

This happened to us with a debit card - the ***** that did it emptied our current account and left us overdrawn to the tune of thousands of pounds. We had no idea until we had our card refused in a supermarket and were marched off to the Managers office to speak to the Fraud Dept of our bank by phone. All of the transactions took place in Spain - fortunately we could prove that we were home in the UK at the time. We had not been to Spain for several years so can't work out how it happened. Happy ending however, as the bank took the loss.

[Carolin]

This is the major reason I will never use a debit card. It comes right out of your bank account. At least with a credit card you can dispute the charge and get it taken off.

[peteukmcr]

It appears to me that a lot of these frauds happen to us Brits when we're abroad. I know it happens to others from other countries as well, but it happened to us after staying at the Intercontinental Miami prior to a NOS cruise, my cc was used 6 months later for a reservation at the same hotel when I could prove I wasn't even in the US! I was actually on business in Austria!

 

I'm not using it this time we're on FOS, going to deposit cash/TC's at Guest Relations for our SeaPass account and use cash when in Orlando post cruise. I've pre-paid my car hire and hotels so no cc authorisation required. This prevents any 'pre-authorisation' needed by cc and therefore, any chance of my details being provided that could be 'cloned'.

 

British banks are so good at stopping your transactions when you're abroad these days, even though you've notified them, it's not worth the hassle. Back to Travellers Cheques for me.

 

Kellya1, I hope you get it sorted.

 

sandancer - glad you got it sorted out.

[PCWalton1]

This is the major reason I will never use a debit card. It comes right out of your bank account. At least with a credit card you can dispute the charge and get it taken off.

 

Actually you can get your money back immediately with a debit card when you contact the bank and state you want to dispute the charge. I have done this twice, once with a charge that was from Hong Kong (haven't been there since the 70s) and once with a charge from Berlin (never been there). For the Hong Kong one, the bank spotted it first and contacted me. They then credited my account on the spot with what they called a "temporary credit" which became permanent after they investigated it.

[peteukmcr]

Actually you can get your money back immediately with a debit card when you contact the bank and state you want to dispute the charge. I have done this twice, once with a charge that was from Hong Kong (haven't been there since the 70s) and once with a charge from Berlin (never been there). For the Hong Kong one, the bank spotted it first and contacted me. They then credited my account on the spot with what they called a "temporary credit" which became permanent after they investigated it.

 

That's not the case in the UK. If a payment is taken from a debit card, it is deemed to have been with your permission and has to be passed to the fraud department for investigation. No refund is made until it is proven that you were not responsible which can takes several weeks. This happened to me when a TA debited my debit card twice. My bank advised that I must have approved the charge and my only recourse was with the merchant and I had to get them to credit the extra charge. It is only with credit cards in the UK where you will get an immediate 'refund' when you dispute the charge and you gain a 'temporary credit' whilst it is being investigated.

 

There are different procedures depending on where your credit/debit card is issued.

[CruiseLover15]

Something similar happend to us. We were on a cruise at Thanksgiving last year and we had a charge for $400 for some car transport company. It was with out Debit card and as soon as we noticed it we called the bank. They tried to say it was an actual charge in Orlando, we cruised out of Miami and never went to Orlando and the charge happend around the 6th of December and we had been back home in NC a week. They actually had what looked like my signature. We did a dispute, but the bank said..........they have your signature so it is a real charge. My husband started investigating at this time. He did google earth on the address and it went to a old house. We called the phone number and it went to a company that transports handicap people to doctors appts. We had to jump through a lot of hoops........ had to get proof that I was at work the the whole week in which the charge occured. After about 20 phone calls and a couple of letters we finally got the money refunded.

[sandancer]

This is the major reason I will never use a debit card. It comes right out of your bank account. At least with a credit card you can dispute the charge and get it taken off.

We only ever use the debit card at home for purchases. When we travel we get cash from an ATM. For our shipboard account etc. we use a credit card.

[Mings]

This has happened to me on 2 separate cruises. The first was in the caribbean when we sailed with Princess and the second was in the med with NCL. Since the only department who gets a credit card imprint is check-in I was left thinking that is where my card was cloned. The cards that were cloned were only used for holidays and on cruises only handed over a check-in. We never used the card ashore.

 

I have always been refunded by my credit card company but that is not the point.

 

I now pay cash for onboard services and purchases at the end of the cruise.

[OLS]

That's not the case in the UK. If a payment is taken from a debit card, it is deemed to have been with your permission and has to be passed to the fraud department for investigation. No refund is made until it is proven that you were not responsible which can takes several weeks. This happened to me when a TA debited my debit card twice. My bank advised that I must have approved the charge and my only recourse was with the merchant and I had to get them to credit the extra charge. It is only with credit cards in the UK where you will get an immediate 'refund' when you dispute the charge and you gain a 'temporary credit' whilst it is being investigated.

 

There are different procedures depending on where your credit/debit card is issued.

 

I think for us UKers it must also depend on where the card was used as only a few months ago my bank rung me and asked if I had recently been away out of the UK, I said i hadn't, they asked if ive given my card to anyone I said now and they then informed me a fraudulent transaction of £1.29 (tester) then £88 (remaining balance) had been taken then an attempt of £408 charge, now luckily this all happened a few days before payday so the account was almost empty (thank god they didnt get the £408!!) but the bank just sent me a form which arrived in 2 days, i filled it in, sent it guranteed next day delivery back (the form only asked for name, details of fraud and signature, no proof) and money was refunded in a further 3 working day so all in all done and dusted in a week. Obviously it wasnt instand but prety quick I thought. maybe if its happened in your home country they take longer as lets face it anyone can say "nope wasnt me"

 

Either way this thread has convinced me to take all cash as I was undecided!!

[BND]

This of course can happen anywhere. About a year ago I got an automated call from my cc holder (credit union) stating there was suspicious activity. We've gotten those calls before when we've made out of the norm purchases while on vacation and we just go through a call director and acknowledge they're our charges. This time though, charges were made in the Chicago area at Wal Mart and gas stations to the tune of over $700 total. They called us the same day and cancelled the card immediately and issued new ones. Not only weren't the charges ours, we've never been to Chicago and at the time the charges were made my DH was in CA on business. We both had our cards but I was told the charges were made with a card and not just a cc number. The only time that card had been out of my sight in months was at a local Red Robin restaurant just a couple of weeks before when the waiter took it to pay for our meal. Anyway, our credit union investigated and removed the charges and while they were on the account, didn't charge us any interest or anything.

[Tucker in Texas]

We had our Discover card cloned to the tune of $2,500 somewhere in California. This was back before computers so we didn't know until we got the bill. The charges were all done in one week. Discover told us that they know it takes one week from the close of the month until you get the bill so they work on the assumption your closing date is the first day they use it. They took the charges off with no questions after we verified those that were ours.

 

I did give my husband a hard time about sneaking off to California without me but what really frosted my pumpkin was the $350 he spent at Victoria's Secret for his girl friend.

 

Husband checks our credit card accounts almost daily. More than once I have been called by the companies when I have made several charges in "different" towns in a short period of time. They have no idea that Webster, Texas, abuts Houston, Texas, which is one mile from League City, Texas, so it is easy to run up charges in different towns in a couple of hours if you are a power shopper.

 

Tucker in Texas