I gots a quershion ….

[Thumper]

I remember, years ago, P-hole had his fishing gear (and maybe a gun?) ripped off from his truck in his driveway. He later found the stuff listed on eBay … or Craig’s List maybe? He contacted the cops and they could have cared less. I think Cappy offered to get involved, but I don’t remember where it went from there.

Well, in June, Lynn’s brother in California passed away unexpectedly. We immediately threw some clothes in our car and drove to L. A. to be with Lynn’s mom. While there, I ended up with something like 7k-8k of bogus charges to my AmEx card. They seemed to know everywhere I shopped … eBay, Amazon, Walmart, etc. and bought stuff like iPads, iPhones, big screen TV’s, etc. All was ordered on-line. I immediately called AmEx and they asked if I was in physical possession of my card. I told them it’s in my hand as we speak, then they said their fraud dept. would handle the “investigation” and I wouldn’t be charged for anything. When I rechecked the orders, I saw that all had been “cancelled”. We were out of town, so AmEx overnighted a new card.

I checked the orders and saw that whomever made the charges, had changed my saved delivery address. My personal info, including my name, remained the same, but the delivery address was changed to some address in Miami.

A few months later, I received another message alerting me to possible fraudulent charges. Sure enough, someone had made an on-line order, in the middle of the night, to Walmart. They ordered $300-$400 worth of groceries and were scheduled to pick them up at the outside delivery area the next morning, THIS time in Ft. Lauderdale (just north of Miami). I also noticed another $250 or so worth of groceries were in my shopping cart. I guess if they picked up the first load, they would order more with just the push of a button. Again, I called and confirmed I did not order anything and again, the sale was cancelled. AmEx AGAIN sent me a new card. I went through and changed my password at every place I could think of.

A couple days ago, I woke up to take a leak and heard a text message come through on my phone. It was AnEx asking if I’d just placed an on-line order. Ummm, no, it’s 3:00 am, I’m in bed and my card is in my wallet. Again, there were $300-$400 worth of groceries ordered and scheduled for outside pickup at Walmart at 10 AM … this time in Orlando! The same exact M. O. as the previous time, there was another $200-$300 stored in my “shopping cart”. Same deal, their fraud dept. will take care of it and I won’t incur any charges. I later checked and found the order had been cancelled. I now have my THIRD card in 6 months!

Now for my question. WTF does the “fraud dept” do? Wouldn’t it have been easy-peasy to simply have a cop stationed in the outside pickup area and arrest whomever showed up for the delivery? Do these people really give a flying fuck about this stuff, or is it easier to just write it off and move on without ever leaving their desks?

[Hombre]

I've had this happen a few times. I think the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Most of the companies right this off as the cost of doing business, and with the understaffed law enforcement its likely hard to get a response.

[Thumper]

I have a close buddy here who went out to dinner with his wife a couple months ago. They left the restaurant and after they were half way home, the wife realized she’d forgotten her cell phone. They called the restaurant, but no phones had been turned in and their waiter had already left for the night. He used the “find my phone” app. and followed it to a house. My buddy walked up to the door and knocked. Their frigging waiter answered the door! He came up with some b/s story, but my buddy got his wife’s phone back.

I told him that was pretty ballsy and asked why he didn’t call the cops. He said he knew they wouldn’t do a damn thing. (He’s a partner in a large law firm in Tampa)

[Chicken Dinner]

Just curious if your buddy called the restaurant and told they they had a thief working for them. If not, that’s part of the reason why our credit cards keep getting skimmed when we’re eating out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jb]

You must be using your card at a location that someone familiar with you works
Copies your new card and off they go.
Had this happen to me at a local restaurant, could not fine out who it was ,but because we like the place we continued to eat there but paid with cash.
Any time you trust a waitress or waiter with your card you take that risk.

[Thumper]

Just curious if your buddy called the restaurant and told they they had a thief working for them. If not, that’s part of the reason why our credit cards keep getting skimmed when we’re eating out.

Good question. TBH, I don’t remember what the guy’s story was as to why he had the phone (not sure my buddy even mentioned it because Lynn doesn’t recall either). I’d imagine he’d come up with a story about it being almost closing time and he held it to keep it safe until the next day when they could pull my buddy’s credit card info and try to contact him. At least that’s the story I’D have come up with if I were in his position. Then you wouldn’t know if he was a good guy or a bad guy. I’ll have to ask him. We were just at his parent’s house for dinner Sunday night, I should have asked if they know.

[Thumper]

Yeah Bubba, that’s what baffles me. 99.9% of the charges on my card, are auto payment type set-ups or on-line purchases. 99.9% of our purchases made in person, are done on Lynn’s card. Her’s has never been compromised. I’d expect it to be the reverse.

[Thumper]

Another baffling example is years ago I had the same type thing happen on my Master Card. I use AmEx for EVERYTHING, but keep a M/C for the rare places that do not take AmEx. I went years never using the M/C, then made a purchase at a Dollar General (or Family Dollar? Can’t remember) store. They didn’t accept AmEx, so I used my M/C. I never used it after that but a few weeks later, I started getting charges out of Puerto Rico! They were buying minutes on prepaid phone cards. I talked to the M/C fraud dept. and told them it HAD to be someone at that store, but they just gave me the same old, “We’ll investigate it”, but I seriously doubt they did a damned thing other than write it off.

[Hombre]

I got my debit card stolen years ago and they ran up about $3K at Wal-mart. The frustrating thing was they didn't buy food, diapers, or any essentials they bought Xboxes, Games and TVs. The more frustrating part was they went in the first time and bought $800 TV, then went back in and bought a XBox, then back in and bought some games, then back in and bought another TV. Then they went and tried to buy something for more than the $100 that was left in my account and just kept taking stuff back until the card didn't decline. They got the balance all the way down to a few dollars. In all these transactions the checkout person never thought, hmm, somethings fishy here. I reported it and got credited everything back and then reported it to the police. The police told me they'd take the report but likely would never get around to investigating anything.

[Thumper]

Heck, who says crime doesn’t pay? I think I need to start stealing credit cards. Who the “F” is gonna do anything about it?

[BarryBobPosthole]

I went out to go fishinh with the NOVA boys and Larke a few years ago. Went out for luncheith Len and his squeeze (the one at the time anyways) and I insisted I pay for lunch. By that afternoonMCfraud dept was calling letting me know someone was using my card. They made MANY VRBO reservations with it. Of course, no charges to me. But my point is someone at the restaurant had to have lifted my card. Made me want to go punch that limp wristed waiter we had that day.

Shit happens. Theives are everywhere. Are the more now than before?. I don’t think so. Assholes have always been around.

BKb

[Thumper]

If assholes weren’t all around, we’d ALL be fos! (think about it) ;)

[Thumper]

Ok, Lynn and I went out to dinner with my attorney buddy and his wife tonight. I asked him about the details regarding the cell phone deal discussed above. (Where he traced his wife’s phone to their waiter’s house)

It seems he never even saw the waiter. He went up to the house and knocked on the door, but nobody answered. He just kept pounding on the door and finally a gentleman answered the door. It looked like he’d been sleeping and was awakened by the pounding. Turns out he was the father of the waiter. The waiter was hiding in his bedroom and refused to come to the door. After hearing the story, the father retrieved the phone from his son and returned it to my buddy.

I asked if he reported the incident to the restaurant and he said no, because the father was so irritated with his son and apologetic, he was sure ol’ dad was going to open up an old fashioned can of whoop-ass on the boy, so he left it at that.