Living Outside The Lines: Credit Card Fraud

This makes absolutely no sense. It is impossible for me to “accidentally” order a laptop. How’d someone get my card, and worse, my name and home address?? We try unsuccessfully to report the incident to…

Becky J Miller | Exclusive to Corridor News

Each year millions of Americans become victims of credit card fraud. The cost is staggering; approximately $190 billion in losses to merchants, $11 billion to banks and $4.8 billion to customers. For many individuals the numbers are mere statistics until the theft becomes personal, and then the reality of the offense can become overwhelming.

Imagine yourself at the office diligently contemplating a work issue then briefly glancing at your phone to see a text message from your spouse asking, “Did you purchase a laptop from Dell?” The question is so random your brain has difficulty comprehending the meaning. Huh? Purchase a laptop? You answer, “No, why would I do that? I have a relatively new & perfectly good laptop. Besides you buy all of our phones and computers.”

As the story unfolds, the feelings of violation are devastating. The number used belongs to the card bearing my name, still stored safely in my wallet. Immediately we phone Dell for answers, which are not forthcoming. Despite our claim the order is fraudulent, they refuse to release any information about the order. We do however, manage to find out the order was placed in my name, with our home address used for the delivery location.

This makes absolutely no sense. It is impossible for me to “accidentally” order a laptop. How’d someone get my card, and worse, my name and home address?? We try unsuccessfully to report the incident to the local police department. There seems no recourse.

Following the tracking information and fearing the mystery thief intends to intercept the delivery, we do manage to tackle the UPS deliveryman when he drops off the laptop. Possessing the item now provides the leverage we need to negotiate with Dell. Finally we get our money refunded and they get their laptop back. We cancel our cards, and take a deeper interest in monitoring our bank accounts.

Despite the continued diligence, since 2012 our debit/credit cards have been used fraudulently on five different occasions. In addition to the laptop purchase, there were Wal-Mart gift cards, flower delivery, Lyft transportation, and several more the details of which I cannot recall.

My husband now gets notifications of every transaction on our cards, which makes birthday and Christmas shopping for him virtually impossible. It also means I can make an unexpected purchase, even in benign places like the grocery store, and almost immediately I’ll get a text, “Did you go to HEB?” It’s annoying, but necessary.

Fortunately these fraudulent transactions have cost us only in pain and suffering not actual financial loss. I’m grateful we’ve not been impacted monetarily, but the deceitful actions of strangers have definitely caused us discomfort.

On one occasion the credit card company not only cancelled my husband’s card, but mine too, only they didn’t bother to tell us. Our card numbers are different so we did not anticipate their actions. Imagine the embarrassment of having the card declined for a $10 purchase. You know the money is there so you meekly explain your card was compromised, pull out another form of payment and convince yourself the merchant not only doesn’t believe you, but surely has labeled you a lowlife.

The most recent incident occurred after a girl’s night in San Antonio to see Maroon 5. Arriving home my husband says, “Did you use Lyft in SA?” We had not, and upon closer investigation we found the charge was on my husband’s card. Great.

We were leaving for vacation in Tennessee in less than a week, not enough time to get him a new card. Fortunately, PayPal didn’t cancel my card this time, but I held my breath with every purchase while thinking, ‘Will it decline? Please, Jesus let it work.’

EMV chips have supposedly made credit card purchases safer, but the technology still has not caught up everywhere. Some merchants do not have chip enabled card readers and some credit card companies do not have chips in their cards. However, the bigger problem lies with “card not present” purchases. So with or without EMV enabled cards, credit card fraud will continue to impact millions of users.

To read more on the subject and find out how you can protect yourself visit https://www.credit cards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-security-id-theft-fraud-statistics-1276.php or https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/preventing-fraud/credit-card-fraud-what-to-do-if-you-are-a-victim/. You owe it to yourself.

Until Next Time,
Becky J. Miller
“Warrior Princess”

Becky J Miller is a contributor and is exclusive to SM Corridor News. You can read more of Becky’s columns in Lifestyle.