# someone is using our credit card in another state



## rapmarks (Dec 18, 2008)

We just got a call from chase alerting us to the fact that someone has been running up charges in Georgia on our credit card.  They have cancelled our card and marked those charges as fraudulent.  

Now when i go to our account on line i cannot find the any account activity.  I cannot verify any charges, although I went over them on the phone and everything else seemed in order.  

We drove through Georgia in October and my husband thinks they copied our card in October and are just now using it.  Does this sound like a plausible explanation?


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## gmarine (Dec 18, 2008)

Its certainly possible. You should file a police report and put a freeze on your credit file. Good luck.


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## SueDonJ (Dec 18, 2008)

It could be one way for it to happen, sure.  But there are so many others.  When it happened with our Fleet Bank debit card years ago, it was because an employee of BJ's had hacked into all of the debit card accounts.  We learned about it the same way you did, the bank contacted us a day or two after the out-of-state charging began, but we didn't know until months later that it was related to the BJ's issue in the news.

Chase may have disabled your online access as a security measure, but it seems they would have told you that on the phone.  Or, if you mean that you can't see the fraudulent charges only, they have probably already removed them from the account.

One thing - you may want to call your local police department tomorrow and ask them to file a report for you.  It would have never occurred to us at the time but Fleet asked us to do it.  When we did see the news report about the BJ's hacking and called them to say we may have been one of the "victims", the first thing BJ's asked us for was the police report.

This kind of thing is such a hassle, but it really is amazing how much the banks and credit companies have increased their security measures.  Ten years ago you probably wouldn't have gotten a call about it, and you'd have to fight to have the charges removed.  I hope this call from Chase is the last you hear of this problem.


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## "Roger" (Dec 18, 2008)

Plausible, but they could also have stolen your number yesterday and duplicated the card in Georgia.  

I've had two cards cancelled.  In one case, it was being used (swiped through a card reader) in Mexico and in the second case someone tried to do a large charge at a Macy's in Connecticut (they were denied).  In both cases, I had the real card in my wallet and the fraudulant transactions were over a thousand miles away.  

When they discover something like this, they will always immediately cancel your online access to your account (on the stolen card number).


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## dioxide45 (Dec 18, 2008)

We were scammed at a local fast food restaurant drive through recently. Either that or they just entered in the wrong amount. Our total was 11.16, my wife wasn't given a credit card slip and she didn't ask for it. When the charge posted to our account it was for 21.16. You know their drawers had to be over, so I wonder where that money went. When we went back tothe restaurant to get the $10 back, we learned we were not the only ones to come in and complain.
Make sure you always get a credit card slip at the window where you pay. We had the restaurant receipt that you get at the 2nd window and used that as our backup.


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## LUVourMarriotts (Dec 18, 2008)

You'll never know how they did it.  Luckily Chase caught it and you won't be effected by the charges.  Our card number was hi-jacked a few months ago.  We were at an outlet center and used it at Carter's and Desert Moon.  Then, about 2 hours later tried to use it again and it was already put on alert by Chase.  I called Chase and they told me that someone tried to use it to purchase something for over $500 on PayPal, which is why they put the card on hold.  Then, another purchase attempt was made (via card swipe according to Chase; which means the person duplicated the strip onto their own fake card) in the same town we were in at a horseback riding store.  That's why I know it was hi-jacked there, because we live an hour away from there.


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## pjrose (Dec 19, 2008)

Fortunately our card hasn't been hijacked. However, we have gotten calls from the fraud people at least 3-4 times when the computers have noticed unusual activity.  Once I had made several separate purchases in the same day at a particular store where I didn't usually shop, and I don't remember the others.  They called our home number and had us give the names of the stores where we had shopped.  Then I think we also had to call the main credit card  number and verify our some info, after which the fraud alert was lifted.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Dec 19, 2008)

I have often been amazed at how accurate the fruad algorithms are that the credit card companies use to detect fraudulent.  I've had many situations in which, thinking in retrospect, I've been surprised my chartges didn't tirgger something at the credit card company.  But when there has been fraudulent activity on an account, in all but one instance they've picked it up immediately.


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## SueDonJ (Dec 19, 2008)

Don hates to shop so he does all his Christmas shopping in one day.  Last year on the day he went shopping, Chase called around 3 in the afternoon after he'd been out for hours.  Try as I might, I just could not get them to tell me what he'd bought me for Christmas!    "Sorry, Mrs. J, but you'll have to wait until the 25th just like the rest of us.  Please ask your husband to call in to confirm his purchases when he gets home."  He hadn't bought anything extravagant either - it must have been his infrequent shopping that triggered something.


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## Jennie (Dec 19, 2008)

File a report immrdiately at your local police station and then notify the 3 major credit reporting agencies to place a "fraud alert" on your account. This will not interfere with your regular use of all of your credit cards but it will prevent someone from opening up a new account in your name, and help deter crooks from obtaining medical or hospital care, or telephone or cable service. and even a drivers licence in your name. It will also stop companies from sending you balance transfer offers, usually with blank checks enclosed, that can be intercepted from the mail. 

I have a close friend who has been "going through hell" for 16 years with this type of nonsense. It appears that when she used a credit card at a gas pump in Florida, some illegal device copied her information and soon thereafter, fraudulent charges appeared all over Florida. (She lives in New York and was in Florida for only one week, ever). The problem continues to this date. Every few years, she receives collection letters for telephone service and cable tv service which was ordered in her name in Florida (but not on any credit card she owns now). The people would pay with a check or cash to begin the service and then fail to pay the bills. One phone company had even obtained a court judgment against my friend in Florida, which required tons of paperwork to vacate. 

Each incident requires her to fill out a multi page identity theft report, which needs to be notarized, obtain a police report from her local police, and return it to the cable or phone company or doctor or hospital with several documents proving she was living in New York during the time the service was rendered in Florida. It's possible someone may be driving around with a license in her name. One was shown as proof of identity when one cable service account was set up. They did not make a copy of it nor enter the license number into her account. They now keep copies. The police tell my friend that they cannot locate any license in her name, other than her real one, so the crooks probably showed a phony one.

She has to keep a fraud alert on her credit reports. The damn credit bureaus require her to renew it every 3 months. The procedure for having a "permanent" fraud alert, which lasts for 7 years, is very tedious but she is in the process of doing it now. 

Bottom line, place the fraud alerts immediately and renew them every 3 months for a year or two. This should cause the crooks to "give up" on your info and stop using it and spreading it around to other creeps. Once it gets out there, it can cause you major grief. My friend is in the process of obtaining a new Social Security card because the illegal use of her info has been so rampant. The police told her that had she placed fraud alerts on her reports when it first began, the crooks probably would have discarded her info and moved on to another victim.

It's a huge problem nationwide. By the way, for those of you who do not know this, when merchandise is purchased with your info, it's the store that takes the financial hit, not the credit card company. These losses run in the billions each year and ultimately we pay for them via higher prices the merchants must charge to offset the losses.


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## pcgirl54 (Dec 19, 2008)

We live in MA and 3 years ago we got a call from FirstUSA Visa that someone was charging using our cc# in California. The cards were in our wallets and we had not been to California.

Put a fraud alert with all 3 credit bureaus. Transunion,Equifax and Experian.


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## rapmarks (Dec 19, 2008)

Chase told us they would put the fraud alert to the three companies. But I better call the police, now I have to figure out who the police are for our area.  

We did get our card refused by Chase once.  My son was getting married in downtown chicago, we charged about $1000 hotel bill and then went to pay for the rehearsal dinner, over $1000 , and they refused to pay it.  Thank heavens the restaurant took a check.


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## Don (Dec 19, 2008)

My wife and I each had RCI points cards (that's a story in itself).  Acouple of years ago, when they changed financial backers, we got a call from the new backer's fraud dept. asking if we had purchased anything from the Republican Party's online store and made several long calls to Central America.  We hadn't used either of those cards for a while and had been thinking about closing them anyway so we did after we got the fraudulent charges cleared up.

Oh, one warning about Chase.  They change the expiration date in their records when they send you updated replacements even if you have not activated the new cards.  I tried to make a purchase on my old card, which still had almost two months left before it expired.  It was denied because of this action of theirs.  So you better activate the new ones as soon as you get them because the old ones aren't any good anyway.  Heaven forbid that you be on vacation and an emergency occurs while the post office is holding the mail that contains your new cards.


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## JoAnn (Dec 19, 2008)

Pat, Gerry & I each have AM EX & Visa cards, and about a year ago all 4 numbers were 'hijacked' with in about 3 weeks.  Each time the company called us and we were told they would remove the charges (some in SC & GA) and we'd never see them on our account.  We got new cards and have not had a problem since.  

One time I got a call and they asked if I had signed up with E Harmony for $175.  I started laughing and said "after being married 56 years...NO  WAY"  Then she asked (apologizing) could my DH have done it?"  No, he can barely use the computer and has no idea what E Harmony is!"  Since then we haven't had a problem.  At least Visa asks for our zip code now.


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## bogey21 (Dec 19, 2008)

Who knows where they get the Account Numbers.  I have a Discover Card I used to use for gas purchases.  About 3 years ago I took them up on a real nice interest rate to maturity loan and put the card in my safe.  About 3 months ago Discover called and said my card was being used in California.  

George


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## kewanee (Dec 19, 2008)

rapmarks said:


> Now when i go to our account on line i cannot find the any account activity.  I cannot verify any charges, although I went over them on the phone and everything else seemed in order.


Citi cancelled our card due to 'possible fraudulent activity'.  I don't think there were any actual charges, but I guess our number showed up on a list of stolen numbers somewhere.  They wouldn't give us any information because of an ongoing investigation.
   Anyway...  when I whined about not having a card while they mailed a new one, they offered and expressed the new card the next day.  I still had to change all my auto-charge stuff myself, but they faxed me my last 6 months of bills (since I also couldn't see my online activity anymore).   Once the new account was set up online, my current activity for the month was transferred over.


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## Nancy (Dec 20, 2008)

*Backup Credit Card*

We keep another credit card because of fradulent usage on ours several years ago.  We only had one card and they sent a new one, but we were traveling and without a card for a few days.

Nancy


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## itchyfeet (Dec 20, 2008)

A few years back someone charged airline tickets in India, not just once but twice with my charge card.  I caught the fraud when I reviewed my statement.  There were some additional Internet purchases also.  Someone even opened an AOL account with the card.   No hassle-- Chase cancelled the card, I filled out fraud forms, and Chase issued a new card.


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## AKE (Dec 20, 2008)

THe credit card algorithms to detect fraud are better now but a few years ago it was a different story.  We were at one of the outlet malls and I purchased 6 pairs of shoes (2 pairs for each of my 3 kids). Just after the transaction was run through, the cashier noted that he had forgot to deduct the promo (about 20%) and said that he would refund the whole amount and then run the charge through again.  At the next store my credit card was denied,, and also at the subsequent store.  I called the credit card company and they told me that no-one would buy 12 pairs of shoes and thus there had to be fraud.  I noted that the first transaction had been cancelled  (total value was less than $150 for the 6 pair) whereupon the credit card company noted that debits are run against the card in real time (i.e. right away) whereas credits are batched (and run through only once at the end of the day).  As such they had me onfile for purchasing 12 pairs of shoes... but even then the total value was less than $300.  Interestingly, just a few months earlier I had purchased airline tickets for the whole family - total cost was $6000.  The airline reservation system had a hiccup and the transaction was run through twice (i.e. $12,000 for 10 airline tickets) - I only caught it when I got my statement.  Surprisingly, the bank found nothing strange with  $12,000 in airline tickets (and I had no previous habit of buying tickets in this amount or quantity) but the questioned a $150 shoe purchase!.


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## KCI (Dec 20, 2008)

The bottom line to this whole thread is to contact one of the credit asencies and file a fraud alert (as many have stated above) so that the folks that have your information can't get a car loan, mortgage or what ever. A fraud alert only lasts 90 days, but it's free and only takes a couple minutes to open. The credit agency you open it with informs the other two. I do this every 90 days. I just put a reminder on the computer to remind me. If you need credit the company you are buying from must call you (through the credit agency) in person to get permission to open a card or borrow money against your credit. I've had them call me twice and it never slowed down the action. 
KCI's Wingman


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## isisdave (Dec 21, 2008)

AKE,

I think there's more to that story that they didn't tell you.

Credit card transactions don't include what you're buying, just an amount. They had no idea if you were buying 6 or 12 pairs of shoes, or a stuffed alligator, until you told them. And there are lots of $300 items at a shoe store.


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