S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[Thipu1]

A woman with whom we had lunch on a ship had a great story. 

She lived in California.  On her way to work, she used a corporate credit card to buy gas.  This was fine with her employer. 

When she got to work she found a voice mail from the credit card company and immediately responded. 

At 7:30 did she purchase fuel from X service station in Y California?  Yes, she did.

At 8:00 did she purchase $2000 of goodies from Z shop in Tokyo?  No, she most certainly did not. 

Sometimes, credit card companies do get things right.  Neither she nor her employer were charged.

[Julian]

Nyachan's story reminded me of one a few years back. 

We had a thief at work.  Never did find out who it was.

The thief got into a junior doctor's locker and took his wallet.  Doc was in operating theatre working, so he was unaware of the theft, till he got a phone call from Sgt So-and-so from Local Police Station.  His wallet had been found, intact, and was at the station waiting for collection.  Phew, lucky, hey?  No need to cancel cards now, huh?

So junior doc trundles off to the local police station, where there was no Sgt So-and-so and no wallet.  Thief, meanwhile, had a fabulous time maxxing out his cards.

[jedikaiti]

Oh that is just evil!

[Minmom3]

A long time ago, somebody stole a check from my checkbook at Costco.  They wrote it for about $1300 worth of stuff, using a special business code that only an employee would know to use to get it OK'd without a manager's signature.  The only reason we didn't get dinged for it was we had less than that in the account, and it bounced.  When we disputed it (since I KNEW I'd only spent $150 that day, let alone we didn't have a business account), the bank talked to Costco and put it in their hands.  We had to close the account and call everybody and tell them that we'd be writing them a new check, and why, and I don't know if Costco ever found out which employee did the deed and bought a lot of high end sports equipment on our check...  We ended up not being out a penny, so that worked out well, aside from the huge nuisance of it all.

[Jules1980]

A woman with whom we had lunch on a ship had a great story. 

She lived in California.  On her way to work, she used a corporate credit card to buy gas.  This was fine with her employer. 

When she got to work she found a voice mail from the credit card company and immediately responded. 

At 7:30 did she purchase fuel from X service station in Y California?  Yes, she did.

At 8:00 did she purchase $2000 of goodies from Z shop in Tokyo?  No, she most certainly did not. 

Sometimes, credit card companies do get things right.  Neither she nor her employer were charged.

When my ex was overseas in the military, I would get lots of calls like this because the PX and other 'shops' would run his debit card and the charges would show up as whereever the store's homebase was. 

So I might get a call because I bought gas in Louisiana, then later that day (but not long enough to travel any real distance) our account would ping for Dallas, Texas (PX) then 20 minutes later in New York City (commisary), then ten minutes later in California (some fast food place).  I must have explained it a million times, but I was still glad they did it just on the off chance that one of our cards was stolen.

[ACBNYC]

A long time ago, somebody stole a check from my checkbook at Costco.  They wrote it for about $1300 worth of stuff, using a special business code that only an employee would know to use to get it OK'd without a manager's signature.  The only reason we didn't get dinged for it was we had less than that in the account, and it bounced.  When we disputed it (since I KNEW I'd only spent $150 that day, let alone we didn't have a business account), the bank talked to Costco and put it in their hands.  We had to close the account and call everybody and tell them that we'd be writing them a new check, and why, and I don't know if Costco ever found out which employee did the deed and bought a lot of high end sports equipment on our check...  We ended up not being out a penny, so that worked out well, aside from the huge nuisance of it all.

I had a purse stolen, oh, probably twelve years ago now. They took my checkbook and wrote a bunch of checks--KMart and Best Buy are the two I remember--for thousands. They also used one of my credit cards but for much smaller purchases at a gas station and Macy's. I didn't have to pay anything. Even better, one of the retailers sent a collection agency after me (and I'd already shown them the notarized bank letter stating that I was not responsible for payment). The demand letter contained a threat, which is illegal under the Fair Debt Collections Act. My best friend was a consumer rights lawyer. He contacted the collection agency, and the guy called him and settled immediately. So I ended up *making* money---over $1,000--from the whole thing. That was the great part, but it was still an unbelievable hassle to clear my name.

[Twik]

I got a phone call from my credit card company one Saturday afternoon, asking me if I'd just ordered $15,000 of diamond jewelry online from Macy's. 

They weren't the brightest candles in the bunch. Since it was an online order, Macy's didn't ship the goods until they'd confirmed it with my credit card company. Buying some smaller stuff in person would have been better.

[Carotte]

I had a purse stolen, oh, probably twelve years ago now. They took my checkbook and wrote a bunch of checks--KMart and Best Buy are the two I remember--for thousands.

Don't retailers require ID for such large sums? Here you have to show something like two proof of ID for a check over 100€ (something like 140$°

[Kiara]

They do, but they don't look real well at the ID most times.  For several years, I didn't look at all like my ID picture - I had lost 200 pounds and cut and dyed my hair.  ONE person commented.  For two years, the address on my ID didn't match the address on my checks - I'd moved, and instead of getting a new license, I got the paper change of address add on.  No one ever commented or asked for that second form.

So it was kind of eye opening on how little having an ID check matters.

[ACBNYC]

Either they weren't looking--my wallet had my ID in it, so they had an ID that matched the name--, they didn't look at all, or they the retail cashiers were friends of theirs who would put fraudulent transactions through. 

[Harriet Jones]

I had just opened a checking account and was waiting on the first box of checks to be delivered.   I discovered that someone had stolen the box of checks when I checked the balance over the phone.  They only had written a few checks, one for a magazine that was subsequently delivered to my house.

[Thipu1]

Credit card companies do get it right sometimes. 

For a while, a CW was living in NYC, interviewing for a job in the UK and visiting inlaws in Scandanavia for several weeks at a time.  this resulted in a number of charges that could legitimately be regarded as 'suspicious'. 

She was overseas at the time the call came to our office but I was able to explain the situation to the lady from the credit card company.   

[siamesecat2965]

My dad had one of his cc's used frauduletnly, shortly after he and my mom moved from NJ to VA.  They used to have one gas cc, and paid it off every month.  my dad was meticulous about paying bills, and had everything in spreadsheets. So one day he realizes he hasn’t seen a bill from said gas company. So he calls. They tell him, oh, Mr. Siamesecat, we sent the bill to the NEW address, the one in Brooklyn you changed your account to, when you added a third card to the account!

He was none too pleased since he hadn’t done that, nor had added a third card, but he was especially displeased that they couldn’t say exactly how or why an additional card had been added to the account!  This was about 8 years ago, when gas prices were just starting to rise, and there was already several hundred dollars in unauthorized charges. Since they couldn’t explain to his satisfaction, he cancelled the account then and there. And later on, there were more charges for the stuff you can buy off the bill inserts. He wasn’t responsible for any of the charges, but he also wasn’t happy with their lax security when it came to customer accounts.

My guess is it was an inside job, or someone copied his card # when he bought gas, and was able to use that to add the extra card.

[nutraxfornerves]

I forget how it happened, but my next door neighbor had her wallet stolen without her knowledge. She found out an hour or so later when she got a call from a store. A man & a woman were trying to buy something with her credit card. The woman presented my neighbor's drivers license as ID.

The store clerk didn't have much trouble noticing that the person presenting the credit card didn't look anything like the person in the drivers license photo. Different hair color, eye color, height, face, and, oh yes, one had very dark skin; the other was extremely pale. Apparently the thief hadn't bothered to see if she could get away with the license, or perhaps thought the clerk wouldn't notice.

The store called the police, but also called my neighbor. The store was able to stall the thieves until the police showed up.

[lilfox]

This wasn't a scam, but I'm not sure what was going on - a reverse scam?

I got a call from a company, I think it was Macy's, following up about an expensive purchase and asking me to confirm it was legit.  The call was to my home number, asking for me by name, but the credit card number being used wasn't one of mine.  (The rep read the type of card and last 4 digits and I knew it didn't match any of my cards)  The only thing I could think was that someone tried to order me a surprise gift but given the expense, type of item, and time of year, that was very, very unlikely.

I had them cancel the transaction.  I figured whoever really ordered it wouldn't receive it anyway, so might as well save them (and me) the trouble of following up on a lost delivery.