I Got Swindled!

So, gotta vent on this one:

This evening I went to Wally world to get a few school supplies. Well don't I look dumb when I go to check out and figure I'd toss it on my Citibank credit card. Well I get denied (Used my debit card, no biggie) and I'm genuinely confused, since the card is far from max, while the cashier gives me the "Dumb college kid maxed out his card" look. Long story short I get back and sure enough it is maxed out on:

$400 worth of walmart.com stuff in $49.96 purchases 3x a day
$4 on iTunes (And I am NOT a Mac-guy )
$5 in Groupons (WTF is a groupon?)

And all that must have been for my ever special trip to....Drumroll....FRAN​CE! for the low price of $3900 (Must be First Class..it is the only way to travel after all:cool.
So half of this was approved and the rest was pending. While on hold to the bank for customer service, I hear all about their advanced fraud detection system and early warning system. I had to laugh at that one. I know fraud happens, I have had another couple accounts compromised in the past, but I was alerted to that fact and they were small amounts, not over $4000!

Well if you got this far, thanks for letting me vent and for reading. Please feel free to share your story of how you too got taken to the cleaners on something. and be sure to check your Citi account!

Had a couple take a flight from ny to Florida, rent a car and stay in a very expensive hotel on one of my cards. Card company traced it back to an Avis car rental place in Manhattan where I had rented a car a few weeks before the Florida trip. They were selling card info from the Avis place,

Same thing happened to me a couple years back. Someone bought tickets from NY to Florida, bought 3 pairs of ladies blue jeans online, and bought 4 hard drives from NewEgg. My wife was a little confused. I am a computer geek so the Hard Drives was a possibility. But the ladies jeans and the airline tickets... Totally wasn't me. Neither were the hard drives either BTW.

This happens all the time according to the detective I talked to.

Happened to me too. Fortunately, the 'false card' was used in the UK while I was in Japan, so the bank called my wife (in Australia) to ask why the card was being used in two places. I had another card with me, so they cancelled the spoiled card and refunded the dodgy transactions. All painless.

Yikes. I've had my credit card number lifted twice. They caught it once right away on a $1 Napster purchase (I didn't even know you could still use Napster). The other time the person ordered stuff from Newegg and I caught it.

The person from Newegg spent like $200. The Napster purchase confused the heck out of me. What moron steals a credit card and purchases something for a $1? If I ever stole a credit card, and I never would, I would at least buy something worth potentially getting in trouble over.

Well Florida must be getting old, The rep I spoke to earlier said there was airfare pending to France. I have also heard its all too common for the card numbers to be sold. If the thieves would have told me ahead of time I would have gone out and get myself some L glass to write off as well.

whmeltonjr wrote in post #14944649
Yikes. I've had my credit card number lifted twice. They caught it once right away on a $1 Napster purchase (I didn't even know you could still use Napster). The other time the person ordered stuff from Newegg and I caught it.

The person from Newegg spent like $200. The Napster purchase confused the heck out of me. What moron steals a credit card and purchases something for a $1? If I ever stole a credit card, and I never would, I would at least buy something worth potentially getting in trouble over.

As far as I understand, the low purchases are a sensing withdrawal to see if its a valid account. The first purchase on my account was $1.25 on a Groupon (Hopefully on a discount to a seminar on ethics)

Seems to be happening more frequently. Especially with charges from other Countries. You would think if I have zero history of traveling abroad and made purchases locally the same day it couldn't be me. But the worst part is they freeze the account when they feel it's been compromised and don't notify me till I call wondering what's going on. It's an odd system.

Man that stinks, hopefully it will be easy to get taken care of!!

Unfortunately I have a story to add as well. Back in 2006, first day of deployment we're in Kuwait and I call my dad, he tells me that a Radar Detector arrived at his house. Well he knew I wouldn't need it for at least a year, and it's not really something I would order anyway. He called the company and those guys luckily mixed up the billing and shipping address. After calling the bank he found out that someone was cleaning out my account via debit card. (Charges to a porn site, utility bill and car accessories). By then around $1700 were missing out of my account but he got it straightened out for me (he had a power of attorney). Thieves Suck!

Same thing happened to me a couple months ago. My credit union stopped it at the first transaction when someone tried to buy about $50 or $60 in merchandise at a Best Buy in the midwest. I live in California. They canceled my card and sent me a new one.

It was probably more than 10 years ago when someone spent 500 or 600 bucks on school books in England and used my card... I know how you feel dude, it sucks.

thomascanty wrote in post #14945140
Same thing happened to me a couple months ago. My credit union stopped it at the first transaction when someone tried to buy about $50 or $60 in merchandise at a Best Buy in the midwest. I live in California. They canceled my card and sent me a new one.

Same here, My credit union was on top of some suspect activity on my card. I mean it only took about 7 minutes to sort it out with Citibank (The had to close my entire account and issue a new one) so it was painless, I was just flabbergasted at the utter lack of their "Fraud Detection" on such a blatantly obvious case that was able to rack up over 4k in charges over the course of a week. Needless to say once that card is paid off it's going the way of the dinosaurs.

Yay for Credit Unions! They are not so big & seem to have a better handle on things. Sorry that happened to you Adam ( & the rest!)

Has happened to me twice in two years. Luckily not this year! (yet?) I have one card dedicated to online purchases, and that is the one that was used both times. C.C. company makes it right, but you still have to pay the minimum amount untill it is settled. They ask if I would prosecute, of course I say yes. Have never heard a word. Do these people never get caught, or is it just too much hassle to prosecute? I would think a D.A. would prosecute so it would not cost the C.C. company any money.

If you've had a credit card long enough it happens.

Call card issuer. Explain yourself. Issuer cancels card, reissues you a new one, takes charges off your bill and they try to recover what they can from the no good thief who stole your card number and ran up the bill.

Won't affect your credit at all. Move quickly to resolve.

dave