exvj

Amazing day

I bought some air tickets to the UK on one credit card ($2.5k) and a couple of hours later I got a recorded message on the phone saying call to verify a charge

The computer asked me for my credit card number and social security etc and it crossed my mind that this might not be a genuine call - they might be fishing - so I hung up and called the card company using the number on the back of the card. They confirmed that the call was genuine and I confirmed that the charge was genuine

2 hours later I got a very similar computer call referring to my card at my second bank
I used the same MO and called that bank using the number on the back of that card

This time they said there was $1 on the card for a music download and $414 for an air ticket bought today for an internal US flight on a small airline - nothing to do with my BA flight to London

I told em they were false and they agreed to cancel my card and inform the FEDS and the credit agencies

I wonder if the Feds will be waiting for them when they try to board the plane ? Of all the things to buy with a stolen card number, a plane ticket would be the last thing I would have thought of...

I check my account online every 2 days but I think I will make it every day in future

Any more grisly stories out there ?

Bob

The missus had someone using fake money to buy food at McD's...it's pretty popular scam on low end food places....but then the person went into the bank asking to exchange it for a roll of quarters for the laundrette....opps

exvj

I advertised various bits of furniture - this was a table for sale

A chap turned up in a van with no registration plates and the back door was tied with string

He tried to beat me down for half an hour and I said no. He asked to call the woman he was buying it for so he could describe it to her

He called for quite a long time and was speaking in a foreign language - at the end of the month I got a bill for a substantial call to Pakistan !

He paid me £120 in 10 pound notes and counted it out onto the sideboard

Later in the day I was putting it in my wallet when I noticed that the top and bottom notes were genuine and the rest were colour photo copies

Geez I am 62 in November, looks like I am going to have to get more alert over the next x years just when I will be getting less alert

I know that baddies get away with murder in the UK and my USC wife says that in the US they are sentenced to a billion years but still get out after a few months so it isnt that different.

With all this stuff going on I am hardening my line on these people and I reckon they should get serious punishment - like cleaning my cat litter trays with chopsticks

exvj

episode 3

after the table thing I was wary

I was selling my car for £6,500. Some chaps turned up and said they would buy it - they didnt ask to speak to Pakistan this time - anyway it would have been India as they were sikhs.
They had the £6500 in plastic supermarket bags. After the photo copied £10 notes incident I was v suspicious - I said I had terrible eyesight and couldnt check it so could we meet at my bank on monday so they could check it

£6500 in small notes is a mound of money - the cashier checked it and the manager sat at the side of her and double checked it - it took ages

At the end, she said - I am sorry but we count it £20 short - we will have to do it all again.

The buyer pulled £20 out of his pocket and said 'Well you can't blame me for trying'

We all just stared at him

He offered to give me a lift to my office in my car now his - I got in and he swerved into a petrol station and demanded I buy him a tank of petrol.
I said it was his car now. He didnt move. I got out and walked back

lj2

I had 7k sprnt on my card in a couple of trips to the Apple store and a couple of trips to Best Buy, all same day in New York. Meanwhile, I bought my lunch in Chicago.. HSBC sorted it and I paid none of it.

lisa67

someone bought stuff on my i-tumes account, apparently gaining access to it using an e-mail address I haven't used for 2 years! Bank coughed up but it was a hassle cancelling cards etc.!

Jerseygirl

We had six $2K hits on our CC a few years ago from a cycling shop in Connecticut. Turned out to be a large national fraud operation...the FBI and SS got involved...quite a few of the baddies are now behind bars.

When I took my car in for service a run of my CC was taken. Can't believe your CC is still taken off you here when you pay for something...you never find that in the UK now.

Duncan Roberts

I've got no fraud stories but a couple of weird ones about money.

When I was at university there was a pretty large population of Malaysians and some were very, very wealthy. I played football with some of them and one day he said his dad had given him "A little cash to buy a car." Thinking he was going to get the standard student special we were all amazed when he turned up in a brand new BMW 3 series. Turns out his dad had given him something like 30 grand in cash, in a duffel bag which he then proceeded to take a bus to a BMW dealership, negotiate the sale price and then hand them the bag of cash. He said he was quite surprised with the reaction he got but did get the car in the end!

About a year ago I read a story about a woman making a fuss in Wal-Mart (I think wal-mart) because she had 4 $20 gold coins and they wouldn't take them as payment. She went to the bank to cash them out and the teller noticed something about the coins but didn't say anything. So he gave her the $80 and then put $80 from his own pocket into the draw and slipped the coins into his pocket. Then he went to a coin dealer to sell the coins because he saw they were worth a lot of money, $5000-$10,000 a piece. From then on it all went pear shaped and he ended up getting arrested and the woman getting her coins back.

SpoogleDrummer

I got a letter from my bank earlier this year to inform me that they were sending me a new card and pin number because their database had been compromised so someone could have my details. I got my new card and number and started using it, then one day it stopped working, apparently I'd got the pin number wrong 3 times total, not 3 times in a row (I assumed that if you got it wrong twice then right once it would reset the counter but it doesn't) due to typing in my old one from habit. I went to the bank to get it sorted and found out they hadn't canceled my old card in case I was using it to make automatic payments like direct debit I got them to cancel it right away and questioned why they bothered giving me a new card for security purposes then left the other one available for the criminals to use whenever they wanted. I'd much rather have a late bill due to my own stupidity of not changing the payment details than have some crook wipe out my account and then have all my bills late.

exvj

Wow yes that's the way the law works in england too - if you get too much change and you keep it, that's theft
It's amazing how close US law is to English law in some respects but I am always impressed by terms like 'larceny' and 'felon' and very many more and which belong to a prior age (Sheriff too) )(In England)

Apparently (sorry this is an aside), if you want to hear old Norse, it's still alive in Iceland, but the old country (Denmark) has moved on.
The Americans have preserved some really old English that can never be heard in England
I am old and I am English, so I am hoping the Americans will preserve me too

Luckily most home grown cheats are caught fairly easily as in the examples of the person with the forged notes going to a bank to change em to quarters, and my fraudster buying airline tickets with my card number, (We are ready for boarding now at gate 5, yes sir we are all ready), but these international gangs out of Russia etc have brilliant computer minds behind them and are truly scary
I run 2 credit cards and it would suit me if they issued a brand new card every 2 months

What use is the 3 digits on the back ? Every time I order anything mail order, they want my card number, expiry date, registered home address, name per the card and the 3 digit security number. If 3 dozen traders across the continent are given this info on line by me (and they are) , then surely the 3 digit number is no use at all...

What use is it ?

cindyabs

I got an email this weekend from my bank that said I had had some suspicious activity on my account on a specific date and to please check it.

The email looked professional all right, mentioned me by name, said to make sure and use my security code on top of my sign in etc, etc, not obvious scams as I've seen before. However, I decided to follow my instincts and check it, BUT not through the website they so kindly provided.

Sent the email off to the bank and got a response right back, indeed it was a phishing scam.

It will get worse before it gets better.

Dan725

I had an American Express Card in the UK that I hardly ever used. Moved to the States and had been here about a year (and never used that card in that entire time)....and all of a sudden, a 1000 pound hotel bill in Fuete Ventura shows up on it.

All got sorted out by Amex of course, but just goes to show if you have ever used a card, anytime, anywhere, and it's still active, it can be compromised even years after the last use.

exvj

Wow I hope the FEDS get em and and find em some nice drug gang cell mates too. People with all this talent could get a great job easily and instead they are going to get their collars felt - eventually.

CelticRover

My daughter's fiance in Arizona, received a fraud alert regarding a charge for a prostitute in London, around 250 pounds. Is that the going rate?

exvj

Yorkshire men can get 3 ladies soccer teams for that (I am told)

Goalkeeper is free

I didnt know hookers took credit cards, where do they keep the machine ?