Clever CC Fraud

[GAD]

I just spent an hour on the phone with Marriott trying to figure out why I had a charge from a Courtyard since I haven't left my dark hole at home for a year. As it turns out, the charge was listed as: COURYARD BY MARRIOTT. What's wrong with that? Well COURTYARD would make more sense.

Honestly, that's crazy clever. If it was 2-3 years ago when I was on the road 30 weeks out of the year I probably would have never noticed, but since I'm home all the damn time and my travel cards don't get used it was a red flag. It was so smooth I didn't even see it for an hour of staring at it!

Let's be careful out there.

Oh - the best part? This is a Marriott branded card so I got 5x points for a Marriott charge! LOL. Anyway, now the card is canceled and I'll get a new one.

 

[Bonneville88]

That’s wild - and weird - glad you caught it, good reminder I should actually look at the CC statement

 

[GGJaguar]

Whoa, that's sneaky. I will have to more closely watch my statement for things like "Amozon" or "Riverb". One more thing to worry about.

 

[geoguy]

They probably got your credit card info from a previous purchase.

Weasels.

I had something similar happen a couple months ago, but there was a flurry of charges for items that I did NOT purchase (immediately following one that had a misspelled store name), and an immediate adjustment or two from merchants who canceled some of those purchases. Maybe the merchants didn't like that the address provided for the card didn't resemble the shipping address for the items? Just a guess on my part.

I thought the credit card companies were good at ferreting out these types of bogus charges that don't match the card holder's spending habits, but apparently not always.

 

[fronobulax]

I thought the credit card companies were good at ferreting out these types of bogus charges that don't match the card holder's spending habits, but apparently not always.

The credit card companies try but it is a balancing act. I don't travel much and was somewhat annoyed when they denied a charge because it was out of state and in a state I had not been to because family had just moved there.

Last I checked it was cheaper for credit companies to accept and deal with fraud than it was to prevent it.

 

[Mark WW]

When I plan a big purchase I always call the card company ahead of time just so there are no issues. We had a couple instances that they turned some charges down as "suspicious" that my wife made. I scrutinize my bank statement and credit charges on line very meticulously. Most times someone will put through a bogus small item charge just to check the system and if it is approved WHAM BAM thank you Maa'm!

 

[HeyMikey]

The credit card companies try but it is a balancing act. I don't travel much and was somewhat annoyed when they denied a charge because it was out of state and in a state I had not been to because family had just moved there.

Last I checked it was cheaper for credit companies to accept and deal with fraud than it was to prevent it.

Why do you think the interest rates are so when the prime is so low. They ain’t paying for the fraud, you are.

 

[GAD]

Why do you think the interest rates are so when the prime is so low. They ain’t paying for the fraud, you are.

Well the prime lending rate really has nothing to do with Credit Card rates, but yeah. My favorite way to "stick it" to banks is to pay of CCs every month.

 

[GAD]

Well the prime lending rate really has nothing to do with Credit Card rates, but yeah. My favorite way to "stick it" to banks is to pay of CCs every month.

Actually I take that back - I was wrong about the CC rates not being tied to prime. Banks still suck either way.

 

[JohnW63]

I had some parts we ordered from England not allow the purchase. I had to call my credit card company up and say, Yes we ordered those parts and then e-mail the store in England to tell them to try again.

 

[fronobulax]

Why do you think the interest rates are so when the prime is so low. They ain’t paying for the fraud, you are.

I don't literally agree but that is because I have paid less than $100 in credit card interest and associated fees in almost a half century of card usage.

But my comments stem from articles I read about implementing chips in cards. The credit card industry resisted and numerous articles pointed out that the cost of upgrading cards and point of sale terminals and associated readers, software and systems was presented as about 1.5 times the annual losses due to fraud. Perhaps that number was not total fraud losses but merely the portion of fraud related losses incurred by the credit card companies?

But, and I will avoid details because specific policies tend to have political implications, there are a number of problems that have been fixed by policies that shift the financial responsibility for the consequences to an entity deemed responsible for the problem.

 

[Westerly Wood]

the ones i get now, like weekly too, are the "your order has shipped" scams.
they try to get your blood pressure going with fairly large purchase amounts too but it's like all from gmail address and easy to tell it's not amazon etc....

 

[beecee]

We had a couple instances that they turned some charges down as "suspicious" that my wife made.

Please tell me which credit card company!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kidding, she's much more frugal than I am.