I hate fraud

[snorko]

I have a CC that I only use for auto pay stuff. It is never used for online purchases or IRL. Noticed today there were two charges for less than $10.00 for Amazon Prime purchases. I don't have Prime. I called the card center to report and they confirmed the card number was on the charges so that account is now locked and gone.

Sucks as I now have to redo like eight auto pay accounts. Most all are streaming but there is also internet & cell service as well as my health insurance. Why can't "they" issue a CC card that is only authorized for specific charges? seems like that would save a lot of time and trouble.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I have a CC that I only use for auto pay stuff. It is never used for online purchases or IRL. Noticed today there were two charges for less than $10.00 for Amazon Prime purchases. I don't have Prime. I called the card center to report and they confirmed the card number was on the charges so that account is now locked and gone.

Sucks as I now have to redo like eight auto pay accounts. Most all are streaming but there is also internet & cell service as well as my health insurance. Why can't "they" issue a CC card that is only authorized for specific charges? seems like that would save a lot of time and trouble.

Probably because we'd run out of numbers. Just look at your case. That's 8 credit card numbers for you alone. Now scale that out to millions of people.

But I understand your point. Probably what would make more sense would be a 2 factor protected process to add new credit cards to sites via your bank/card company. So instead of "hey, are you logging into site x?" It would be "Are you adding a card to Amazon.com?"

Edit: and Amex already does this now that I think about it. My boss's card has it. Anytime we charge to a new vendor, we cant complete the transaction without the 6 digit code they email him.

 

[OneBadV8]

I have a CC that I only use for auto pay stuff. It is never used for online purchases or IRL. Noticed today there were two charges for less than $10.00 for Amazon Prime purchases. I don't have Prime. I called the card center to report and they confirmed the card number was on the charges so that account is now locked and gone.

Sucks as I now have to redo like eight auto pay accounts. Most all are streaming but there is also internet & cell service as well as my health insurance. Why can't "they" issue a CC card that is only authorized for specific charges? seems like that would save a lot of time and trouble.

you could look into something like this - https://privacy.com/

 

[JTKelly]

Why can't they just arrest, convict, jail these criminals and throw away the key?

 

[ws6guy]

My wife just had 2 different credit cards hit at the same time. Few hundred dollars charged on both on the same day. The only place that we can think of where they got skimmed was at Kroger. A couple months ago one card won't work so she used the second card, which processed fine.

We chose to also cancel her debit card just incase. Also decided to place a freeze on her credit reports.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Why can't they just arrest, convict, jail these criminals and throw away the key?

Because in many (if not most) cases, the criminals are overseas.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Oh, and your card can still get stolen with no use.

We have a debit card with Elements Financial. Its for an account we setup because we had to when we got our car loan. They required auto pay from one of their checking accounts if we wanted an extra .5% off. So we got the cards in the mail and immediately they were put in the safe.

6 Months later we got a security alert texted to us from them. "Did you just try to purchase... ...contact us if you did not."
Sure enough. Somebody used the card that was never used in the wild. So it had to have been scraped from Elements or Visa because NOBODY but them had the number.

And that was a fun call. The agent was rather insistent given there was no use that it was very likely somebody used it and forgot, or maybe check with our kids to make sure they didnt use it without permission.

 

[Tripp11]

^ On first read, I was thinking it could have been an RFID sniffer and someone pulled it by just walking past you...but then I re-read your post and you said the cards came in the mail and went directly in the safe. Conceivably, someone in the USPS (or whatever delivery service) could have sniffed them. That's crazy though.

 

[Cameramonkey]

^ On first read, I was thinking it could have been an RFID sniffer and someone pulled it by just walking past you...but then I re-read your post and you said the cards came in the mail and went directly in the safe. Conceivably, someone in the USPS (or whatever delivery service) could have sniffed them. That's crazy though.

Yeah, we didnt even pull the "you need to activate this card" sticker off.

I guess that was a lie. LOL

 

[42769vette]

Why can't they just arrest, convict, jail these criminals and throw away the key?

Because in the laws eyes cc fraud is a victimless crime. I had a fraud error set up in flirdia somewhere. I knew it was fraud, sent a package (empty) to be picked up at the local post office signature required.

Called the Gloria state police and said go get him boys. I was informed they don't have time to go after victimless crimes. Trying to explain I was the victim fell on deaf ears. That's one of dozens of stories.

What's even worse is, your card gets stolen, and used on my site. You report fraud, and call the CC company. They give you the money back, and appoligize. You thing "that was nice of them to give me back my money out of the CC company's pocket".

In real life they take the money out of my account (plus an additional 3% for processing), to replace the money they give you.

 

[blain]

Companies are not as secure as they'd have us believe.
I'd be surprised if my card numbers WEREN'T all over the place.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Companies are not at secure as they'd have us believe.
I'd be surprised if my card numbers WEREN'T all over the place.

They are. They just havent been purchased and/or used yet. Give it time. LOL

 

[snorko]

Probably because we'd run out of numbers. Just look at your case. That's 8 credit card numbers for you alone. Now scale that out to millions of people.

Well no, I just want to authorize from what vendors charges are authorized. One card, eight approved vendors. the banks already do this rudimentarily when they pause or deny charges that look out of character.

This card has the same eight charges every month. So those are approved but none others without prior authorization. And yes, these could be set up in bill pay but that's eight transactions I have to make instead of one.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Well no, I just want to authorize from what vendors charges are authorized. One card, eight approved vendors. the banks already do this rudimentarily when they pause or deny charges that look out of character.

This card has the same eight charges every month. So those are approved but none others without prior authorization. And yes, these could be set up in bill pay but that's eight transactions I have to make instead of one.

Will the vendors let you set up autopay through your bank? That's the way I have Xfinity set up. It comes right out of my checking account (I always pay it early but it still comes out of checking). I only have Paramount+ as a streaming service, but even that comes from PayPal automatically, which again comes straight from my checking account.

Edit: Actually my credit union will let me set up auto pay for whomever I want.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I have a CC that I only use for auto pay stuff. It is never used for online purchases or IRL. Noticed today there were two charges for less than $10.00 for Amazon Prime purchases. I don't have Prime. I called the card center to report and they confirmed the card number was on the charges so that account is now locked and gone.

Sucks as I now have to redo like eight auto pay accounts. Most all are streaming but there is also internet & cell service as well as my health insurance. Why can't "they" issue a CC card that is only authorized for specific charges? seems like that would save a lot of time and trouble.

Same thing happened to me back in February or so, exact same Amazon scam. My semi-informed opinion is it foreigners listing e-books or music or whatever digital content on Amazon, using hacked credit cards to buy their own goods, and pocketing the money.

With some credit cards, you actually can get a different card numbers linked to your account to use online without compromising your main card. See: https://www.capitalone.com/learn-grow/money-management/what-are-virtual-card-numbers/

"

How are virtual card numbers different from actual credit card numbers?​

You can think of a virtual card number as a stand-in for your actual credit card number, and each virtual card number is linked to your credit card account. When you’re shopping online, you can use virtual card numbers instead of your actual credit card number.
That way, your actual credit card numbers aren’t shared with the websites you’re shopping on—adding a layer of security.
Some virtual cards can only be used at one online store so if that store is compromised, there’s less likelihood that your virtual card for that site can be used elsewhere. That’s the case when you use virtual cards through the Eno browser extension.
That extra layer of security is a major benefit of using virtual cards when shopping online."

Why can't they just arrest, convict, jail these criminals and throw away the key?

Most of it is occurring overseas, which is why amazon digital content is the thing being bought vs a big screen tv at wal-mart. I get paid when someone buys my e-book and then amazon eats the loss when the cc charges back the fraudulent activity, not the book author. Scammer in whatever foreign country has the money now. Smaller fraud domestically is so prevalent that triage at booking means only the biggest and most likely to succeed investigations ever get assigned. Banks don't give AF, it's cheaper to eat the loss then fix the problems. Until it isn't, then security gets ramped up. See the prevalence of chip cards and enhanced encryption now after skimmers started eating into bank's profits.

^ On first read, I was thinking it could have been an RFID sniffer and someone pulled it by just walking past you...but then I re-read your post and you said the cards came in the mail and went directly in the safe. Conceivably, someone in the USPS (or whatever delivery service) could have sniffed them. That's crazy though.

Not a real thing. Skimmers are a real thing, but the notion somebody walks by you and gathers the data from an RFID chip in your card is a fear made up by companies to market RFID blocking wallets. The info is encrypted, which is why skimmers work since the data is going back and forth between the card and the authorized network. When it's just in your wallet it's not communicating with the authorizing network, so the data is useless. Much easier to just use skimmers, physically steal cards, etc without tech skills, hack company databases with tech skills.

Because in the laws eyes cc fraud is a victimless crime.

It's not victimless, but it's a non-violent and low priority crime. Given our availability of trained fraud detectives vs the amount of reported fraud, the dollar amount required to get a detective assigned is pretty high *AND* that's if both the victim and suspect have ties to the jurisdiction. Else you need federal help, and petty fraud is like a .01 mph over speeder on I-465.

 

[MCgrease08]

you could look into something like this - https://privacy.com/

This right here.

I got my debit card hacked twice in the past two years. I now use privacy.com to create vendor specific cards. For example I have one just for Amazon, one for AE Ammo, one for my utility and cell service providers, etc.

You can set parameters on spending limits per transaction, number of transactions per month, year, etc. Or set them up as single use.

It's pretty easy to set up and they have robust alerts, so I know if someone tries to use a card number I have set for a specific vendor either with that vendor or somewhere else.

 

[indyblue]

Had some fraudulent charges hit my Discover card last month. I rarely ever put over $200-$300 on my cards but when I do have a text alert threshold of $200. I was in the middle of a pool match when I got a text to approve or deny a $458 charge at Walmart. I denied the transaction and all was well, or so I thought. Someone used it on an internet store and it went through, and I got a alert but no way to decline it - it had gone through. I called Discover immediately (told them I was not shopping but playing pool), cancelled the card and they automatically sent a new one overnight and reversed the charges.

Not sure how they got my CVV without having the physical card, that is the mystery for me since I never let the card leave my sight.

I have begun using one-time card numbers that you can generate on the Discover website for most online purchases now.

 

[42769vette]

The interesting thing is, I changed my policy to only ship to the CC billing address due to losing 30k in 1 month (early days of cc fraud, so Noone was really ready for it) due to fraud. That completely 100% stopped fraudulent orders from going through, but boy did it **** people off. I completely understand it inconveniences more honest folks than stops thieves but something had to give.

We get roughly 30 attempts a day that get declined for small items that is fraudsters testing to see what my site will allow.

 

[firecadet613]

Had some fraudulent charges hit my Discover card last month. I rarely ever put over $200-$300 on my cards but when I do have a text alert threshold of $200. I was in the middle of a pool match when I got a text to approve or deny a $458 charge at Walmart. I denied the transaction and all was well, or so I thought. Someone used it on an internet store and it went through, and I got a alert but no way to decline it - it had gone through. I called Discover immediately (told them I was not shopping but playing pool), cancelled the card and they automatically sent a new one overnight and reversed the charges.

Not sure how they got my CVV without having the physical card, that is the mystery for me since I never let the card leave my sight.

I have begun using one-time card numbers that you can generate on the Discover website for most online purchases now.

All that seems like more of an inconvenient than the fraudulent charges!

It's been years since I've had a fraudulent charge, one phone call and the card was canceled / new one overnighted. With the charges being reversed, there is no pain. On any given month, I charge between 2-10k on my card, but only two automatic recurring charges.

Will the vendors let you set up autopay through your bank? That's the way I have Xfinity set up. It comes right out of my checking account (I always pay it early but it still comes out of checking). I only have Paramount+ as a streaming service, but even that comes from PayPal automatically, which again comes straight from my checking account.

Edit: Actually my credit union will let me set up auto pay for whomever I want.

Hoping that is through bill pay and you haven't given your bank account numbers to a company.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

All that seems like more of an inconvenient than the fraudulent charges!

It's been years since I've had a fraudulent charge, one phone call and the card was canceled / new one overnighted. With the charges being reversed, there is no pain. On any given month, I charge between 2-10k on my card, but only two automatic recurring charges.


Hoping that is through bill pay and you haven't given your bank account numbers to a company.

Yes, I've given it to Comcast.