Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

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What has been the largest fraudulent amount charged to your credit card in a single transaction?

> $25,000
0
No votes
> $20,000
0
No votes
> $15,000
2
1%
> $10,000
2
1%
>$5,000
6
4%
>$2,500
14
8%
>$1,000
18
11%
>$500
22
13%
>$100
38
23%
>$0
25
15%
No fraudulent charges, lucky me
39
23%
Something else, like no credit cards
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 166

Topic Author
livesoft
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Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by livesoft »

What has been the largest fraudulent amount charged to your credit card(s) in a single transaction?

I'm curious at how audacious the perps are since today one of our cards had fradulent charges.

Let's stick to a single transaction though and not the sum of all fraudulent charges even if in a short time.

Thanks!
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MindBogler
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by MindBogler »

I've had numerous fraudulent charges, but the charges have never been visible and cards have promptly been closed by the bank. In fact, both our debit cards were just cancelled last week for this very reason. Maybe I need to shop and dine at different establishments...
Gill
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Gill »

I once checked my accounts early in the morning to discover $10,000 had been charged to my checking account and $4,000 to a credit card through PayPal. I didn't have $10,000 in the checking account but it triggered an automatic overdraft protection charge to my HELOC. By the end of the day I had it straightened out but it certainly got my attention.
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Caduceus
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Caduceus »

A long time ago, I had a mysterious credit card charge for $1.38 or something like that on a card I hadn't used for a while. I called the credit card company and they re-issued the card with different numbers.

I thought it was weird, but maybe it was an initial test charge. This motivated me to look closely at all the charges on my statement.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by nisiprius »

The largest fraudulent charge was exactly $1,000 (so I entered it as >$500). It was a charge to "Firecash," an entity that processes payments for online casinos. When I discovered it, I first called Firecash, which did not challenge my assertion that it was fraudulent and said they would credit it back to my card. I then called my credit card company and told them what had happened. The charge was credited back within a day and I heard no more about it.

The largest scare I ever had was the day I returned from a week-long trip and checked my account and discovered that the online job-search company, monster.com, had charged $10,000 to my account and then credited the $10,000 back three days later. I had established a free personal account with them in order to do job searches. I assume there was no fraud involved--it was an innocent mistake which they discovered and corrected themselves. There was no finance charge on my card. I can't remember what actions I took but there were no problems.
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Caduceus
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Caduceus »

There was no finance charge on my card
Yes, but you should have charged them for emotional distress.
stan1
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by stan1 »

About $700 for a ticket on Air Asia after I'd used my credit card at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur and one in Jakarta. It was on my business card and charge was taken off immediately by Citi.

The largest legitimate charge I've made to my credit card that triggered a fraud alert was $2300 for carpeting. I had 3 false positive fraud alerts within 1 year at Bank of America and thus I've stopped using their credit card as it is too much hassle to go into businesses and find that your card is denied due to an over-sensitive fraud algorithm. I've had zero false positive and zero true positive fraud alerts at Chase in the past 6+ years I've had cards with them.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by snowshoes »

[OT comment removed by admin LadyGeek]
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

stan1 wrote: I had 3 false positive fraud alerts within 1 year at Bank of America and thus I've stopped using their credit card as it is too much hassle to go into businesses and find that your card is denied due to an over-sensitive fraud algorithm.
I had two with AmEx. I'll never get one of their cards again.
JustCurious304
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by JustCurious304 »

I found out that I was a victim of the Target Stores breach, December 2013 when I got an email alert of a credit card charge that I didn't make. I promptly got a new card delivered by UPS two days later. Signing up for email alerts on credit card charges gives me piece of mind.
lack_ey
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by lack_ey »

I've had a couple of false positives but no fraudulent charges... I think.

To be honest, a lot of months I don't line-by-line check all expenses if the total jives with my memory and is sub-$100 in the month for the account, so for all I know someone sneaky has been getting $15 in here and there on me. Doubt it, though.
HIinvestor
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by HIinvestor »

Was charged for a hotel reservation we never made, which was north of $100, Was also charged $10 or $20 for a flat tire in a rental car but they wouldn't provide documents for our insurer, so CC company reversed it.
coacher
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by coacher »

$4,300, charged at a jewelry store approximately 15 min. after pick-pocketing my Discover card at Home Depot
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by bhsince87 »

In 30+ years, I've only had one (knock on wood!!!!). It was a $2 charge to some fake charity. The credit card company notified me (MBNA or Bank of America, not sure which).

And I've been using cards on the internet for around 20 years.
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livesoft
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by livesoft »

Today's fraudulent action was an under $10 charge that went through, then a $3000+ charge that went through, then some denied charges, so the fraud department seems to have caught this after 2 charges. One of the denied charges though was legit while the other was fraud. The legit denied charge was for a hotel in another city and the fraud denied charge was for a local shoe store. One might have guessed the other-way-round. I guess the fraud algorithm says the card cannot be used at about the same time in places separated by several hundred miles. Nevertheless, the $3000+ charge was treated as legit though of course we won't pay anything for it.
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bhtomj
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by bhtomj »

$15,000+ this past November on my FIdelity AMEX. Customer service called me in the morning for prior nights charges at several clubs in Hollywood.

No issues for me except for the hassle of a new CC number. The rewards earned are supposed to be recaptured over the next several months rather that removed from the current statement. So I had a larger than expected January IRA contribution.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by grabiner »

I have never had a fraudulent credit-card charge. (I have caught three erroneous charges to my checking account, but they weren't fraud: two checks cleared for the wrong amount, and one check was submitted electronically, then physically a month later.)

I have had two false positive fraud charges, but both were reasonable false positives.
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Mrs.Feeley
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Mrs.Feeley »

A friend found on her Visa statement a $10K charge for a bedroom set bought at a furniture store in another state. Her credit card company's fraud algorithm somehow never picked it up. She never found out if the thief was arrested. She called the store and the bedroom set was delivered to a local address.

I have a card with a low balance I use only for online purchases. Someone once tried to max out the card by buying store gift cards at one of these online brokers of gift cards. A common use of stolen card numbers. There were several charges for $300 each on the card.
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telemark
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by telemark »

No fraudulent charges. I only have one credit card and routinely use cash for small transactions, so it must be pure luck.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Lynette »

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wilshuer
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by wilshuer »

Just had the first fraudulent charge to a credit card yesterday, $64.93 from a gas station in DE - I live in the West. Luckily bank immediately flagged it and sent a text. Now the fun of having to change the dozens of items set up for autopay, of which I'm sure I'll miss a few and get nasty emails. Does anyone have tips on a good way for tracking autopayments?
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by carolinaman »

Someone hacked my Paypal account and charged $999 to my credit card. Fortunately I was notified of the suspicious charge and was able to get it cleared up quickly with Paypal and my CC company. The irony was that I only had the Paypal account for sale of tickets on Stubhub and had not used it in years. I still have no idea how the thief discovered my Paypal password. The biggest problem for me was changing all of my passwords and remembering them.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Boglegrappler »

Over the past 15-20 years, we've had four or five credit card frauds. Initially they seemed to be local people somehow making fake cards, based on where the purchases were made. More recently they seem to be crooks from all over. The most recent was someone who bought concert tickets across the country for about $600. It seems to happen about once every couple of years.
krannerd
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by krannerd »

I have had a few charges above $1000 on my AMEX. All were resolved with ease.

My worst fraud was with PayPal. I had it linked to my bank account (stupid me) and somehow PayPal processed a $2500 charge for wedding photography that pulled money directly from my bank. PayPal eventually took care of this (over a period of a week)...but I was out the cash and the PayPal team wasn't answering their phone due to the Halloween holiday. I have since closed my PP account and won't conduct business with them or any vendor who solely uses them.
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Minsc
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Minsc »

I got hit with a test, 10 bucks. Then in short succession 100, 100, 150, 300.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by nisiprius »

livesoft wrote:Today's fraudulent action was an under $10 charge that went through, then a $3000+ charge that went through, then some denied charges, so the fraud department seems to have caught this after 2 charges. One of the denied charges though was legit while the other was fraud. The legit denied charge was for a hotel in another city and the fraud denied charge was for a local shoe store. One might have guessed the other-way-round. I guess the fraud algorithm says the card cannot be used at about the same time in places separated by several hundred miles. Nevertheless, the $3000+ charge was treated as legit though of course we won't pay anything for it.
Yes, the $1,000 fraudulent charge on my account (years ago) was preceded by a small charge, $3.19 or so, which at the time didn't register with an actual company name but only as a "communications" provider.

Also, yes, I've personally experienced many nuisance false alarms while traveling, despite telling the card company I would be traveling. Whatever artificial-stupidity algorithm they use at the top level seems to be about as reliable as the average spam filter.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by JW-Retired »

I just remembered another one from a couple of years back and changed my vote from >$100 to >$1000. It was a bogus $2k travel agency charge for plane tickets, along with some other smaller items. Our bank caught some of these but missed the big one that had preceded the others by several days. We found it once we were alerted. All were resolved easily.

Recent fraudulent charges just last year seemed to be a good time match with our use of the card at Home Depot. All (3) were made far from our home, and just one was in the >$100 range, but the bank caught them all. I was amused by the one that was a $5 charge at McDonalds.
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midareff
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by midareff »

A few years ago I checked out of Caesars in Vegas and thought the clerk had fumbled with the card a little too much. I checked the card online as soon as I got home (six hours) later and found entries for airline tickets to Paris and a few other things had occurred since I checked out. Called the card company right away. I understand there was a successful prosecution from that one.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by MDfive21 »

someone ordered a $4000 pool table.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by ResearchMed »

midareff wrote:A few years ago I checked out of Caesars in Vegas and thought the clerk had fumbled with the card a little too much. I checked the card online as soon as I got home (six hours) later and found entries for airline tickets to Paris and a few other things had occurred since I checked out. Called the card company right away. I understand there was a successful prosecution from that one.
Very nice to hear that there seems to have been a prosecution at all, and a successful one.

Too many of these aren't easily "caught", probably just the "most stupid" ones.

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Novine
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Novine »

We just got hit with around $1,000 in charges recently. That's the first time I've ever had that happen. Oddly, about half of the purchases were returned or cancelled by the online site where the charges were placed before I ever even saw them. The credit card company issued a new card and took care of the remaining outstanding charges. Does anyone know if the CC companies make any attempt to pursue the crooks in cases like this?
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lthenderson
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by lthenderson »

The three times I've had fraudulent charges, they have been for less than $40 each and almost all of them were for monthly fees to some website that I had never heard. However, I've never had any problems getting refunded the money and new cards issued.

What was really tiresome is that I shop at Target and possibly had a card that got stolen with them. After that, my card kept getting denied if I shopped anywhere in town (where I live no less) that I didn't normally shop at. It also would get denied every time I used it at a store that had to manually call to complete the transaction due to their credit card system being down. When it happened, I would always have to put my purchases aside, call the credit card company to tell them yes I am the owner of the card I'm trying to use and then return to complete my purchases. A royal pain in the ass.

I finally got fed up and insisted that I get a new card number despite no evidence of anyone every using it for fraudulent purchases and that seems to have done the trick. I still get the occasional denial when someone tries to verify things via phone when their system is down but I have learned to just give them my ATM card when I see that happening. My ATM card has never been denied anywhere. This somewhat concerns me since their is more cash that could be lost than my credit limit on the credit card.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by likegarden »

Luckily we had no fraudulent charges to our credit card yet! Though we received new credit cards several times because of others at the CC company having problems. This time we are waiting now already for a week to get a new card in the mail, paying everything with checks and cash.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

$25 made at a BP gas station 20 miles from my home. I monitor my accounts - saw the charge and promptly had the card cancelled. Was later told by the fraud department that crooks like to charge small amounts to ensure the card is active before "going to town" on it. Well, we disrupted them and the card company was happy I notified them immediately.
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pennstater2005
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by pennstater2005 »

I did get a call from my Sallie Mae card asking if I recognized a charge that had just been billed. I didn't, so they cancelled and re issued a new card. I later realized it was something I had bought for my snow blower however the company billed it under some crazy name I didn't recognize.
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swimirvine
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by swimirvine »

I've had a handful of fraudulent charges over the years. None over $100. The most interesting was when I flew back from California to Maryland I had a layover in Chicago. I bought a bottle of water from a news stand type of store and had lunch at a Mexican Restaurant in the airport. Those were the only two charges. About 2 weeks later small charges started showing up at places like McDonalds and at vending machines around the Chicago area. Places where you would swipe your card and they wouldn't ask for ID.

It was pretty obvious what had happened. I swiped my own card at the news stand store. At the Mexican Restaurant my server took my card into the back and ran it and then came back with the bill and my card in one of those black bill sleeves. My card was obviously cloned at that restaurant. I told this to the person at BofA. I told them I could even identify my server if they wanted (although the cloning device may have been installed on the credit card machine by someone else unbeknownst to the server). They seemed to be not interested at all. I didn't get the feeling that they were going to do any type of investigation. It would cost them too much money to go after these small time crooks.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by shawcroft »

I had a fraudulent $400 gasoline purchase at a Marathon station in Ohio- done at virtually the same time I was in a Home Depot in Connecticut. Penfed caught it, called my cell phone, verified the fraud, and killed the card within 20 minutes. So, I avoided the Home Depot problem...but used another card to buy stuff at Home Depot....which was then in the Home Depot breach,.... and that card was also killed. Two cards within 2 days!
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aja8888
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by aja8888 »

When on business in Puerto Rico, somehow my AMEX got compromised and the next day, AMEX called me and asked me if I was in Croatia spending >$18,000 on electronic tools. I said no. AMEX Rep told me that probably a remote scanner picked up the hotel card scan when checking in the night before and a card was manufactured in Croatia overnight. :?
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Cosmo »

livesoft wrote:What has been the largest fraudulent amount charged to your credit card(s) in a single transaction?

I'm curious at how audacious the perps are since today one of our cards had fradulent charges.

Let's stick to a single transaction though and not the sum of all fraudulent charges even if in a short time.

Thanks!
My card was used somewhere in North Carolina. American Express contacted me and asked me if I was presently in North Carolina. I told the representative no and she promptly cancelled my card and sent me a new one the very next day. I never bothered asking who much the fraudulent charge was and I never saw it on my statement anywhere. I strongly suspected the fraud occurred at a Shell station at the front of our subdivision that was apparently equipped with one of those credit card skimmers. This was based on numerous people's claims on Facebook. Not sure if it actually happened there (I frequent that location often) but I always double check the pump now and look to see if that red label was tampered with.

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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by nisiprius »

"North Carolina" reminds me, I forgot to mention one entertaining false alarm. A mysterious charge of about $80 appeared on our ATM card from a location in South Carolina, where we'd never been. We were ready to contact the bank, but I was sufficiently intrigued to Google the address. It was the address of a fairgrounds. We suddenly remembered we'd gone to a hot-air-balloon-festival (with food trucks and carnival rides) in Rhode Island on or about that date, and that price of tickets for the family had cost about $80, and more Googling disclosed that the South Carolina fairgrounds had hosted the same festival. I dug into the shoebox and was actually able to locate the ATM slip from that day for that amount. Apparently a peripatetic show with a peripatetic ATM machine (it had been sitting outside on the dirt near the entrance with thick cables going to a generator truck).

I shrugged it off as a legitimate charge but now I'm wondering if it the wrong address was an oversight or whether they were somehow evading state sales tax or something...
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by grabiner »

I have had a similar example of an unrecognizable charge. I had a charge from a company I did not recognize in Temple Hills, MD (a suburb of Washington, but not one I had ever visited). I called the card and was told it was for Internet access. I had, in fact, visited an Internet cafe that day, but in Washington, DC, so I expected either the city of Washington or the name of the store to appear. But since i knew about the charge, I confirmed it was legitimate.

I have also had some gas stations show up with strange names that did not make it recognizable that they were gas stations. Once, I had to call to confirm, because I knew I had been in the city but had never heard of the company.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Stonebr »

My first experience with fraudulent cc charges was a few years ago when 5 charges all showed up over a period of 3 days, each of them for about $200-250. Three were for a website called Sephora which my wife tells me is something about cosmetics, and two for the Lego website. AMEX
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Caduceus
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by Caduceus »

^Hmm, is there a possibility that your wife treated herself to some cosmetics, and your child to some LEGO sets? :D

I think this is why AMEX (or some credit companies) stopped serving porn companies, because men were calling in to contest subscriptions to pornsites they claimed they had never visited when their wives caught the statement. "Honey, it's a fraudulent charge! Better call the CC company"
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by fposte »

I clicked the $100 category but upon reflection should probably have clicked more. I've had a few fraudulent charges over the years, but the biggest incident was a few years ago when somebody apparently used a cloned card to do several purchases at various Wal-Marts over a few days; given the amount charged ($100 plus taxes each time), I'm presuming it was for gift cards which could then be resold.

DIscover reversed them no problem. The only difficulty was that I'd been in Quebec when it happened and had purchased some items to be shipped to me; my card number had been changed before they prepped the shipment, so I had to reassure them that I wasn't fraudulent and give them the new number.
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livesoft
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by livesoft »

A minor hassle for us is that we have a few monthly bills automatically billed to the compromised card. Generally, we will get an e-mail from the bill people: "Oh, your card no longer works for us, please update it."
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MarkBarb
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by MarkBarb »

One for $10,000 (a $4,750 cash advance at a bank and a $4,750 at CompUSA plus overlimit fees). A few others for a few hundred. I've always been baffled by the lack of security in the industry.
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jfn111
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by jfn111 »

Knock on wood the only credit card fraud was about 25 years ago. I was in Chicago for meetings and upon returning home I got a call from Amex wondering if I was making purchases at multiple Hip Hop stores in Chicago.
Apparently someone at the Hyatt copied the card and had a new one ready to go the next day.
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by patrick »

I had voted "No fraudulent charges, lucky me" but it turns out my luck had just run out. I just now detected a fraudulent charge on my card for the first time ever. Time to change my vote! The largest individual charge is $40 but they made a bunch of charges totaling over $300. And the first fraudulent charge was made within a couple of days of the same day I had voted in the poll! Such irony!
tim1999
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by tim1999 »

Around $700 from Dell computer. I'm not 100% positive, but I had narrowed down the culprit to a Holiday Inn breakfast waitress in Indianapolis. That was the only time that credit card had been out of my hands and out of my sight in about a 2-month span.
ZumZabo
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Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2014 12:33 pm
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Re: Poll: Largest fraudulent charge to your credit card(s)?

Post by ZumZabo »

I had a similar experience as many, the card company contacted me while I was living in the Mid-West and asked me if I had recently purchased any t-shirts in a shop in London. I said no. Never saw the charges and new card issued immediately. I have no theory as to how it happened. I don't use the card much except for plane tickets and infrequent online purchasees from trusted sites. It was probably 8 or 10 years ago. One and only time.
What makes me think I could start clean slated? The hardest to learn was the least complicated: Emily Saliers / And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don't know: Kerry Livgren
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