A friend was notified the other day by the credit card company that they had noticed an ‘unusual pattern’ in their card usage. Sure enough, she was a victim of identity theft.
The losses were covered, but what the heck are these 'unusual patterns?" I buy some weird shit from time to time, in the oddest of places, but I’ve never been notified of anything. Does anybody know how the card companies do this?
I don’t know the specifics, (they can vary from one bank to another) but things that can raise red flags are multiple cash advances, or multiple anonymous purchases such as pay-at-the-pump gas in one day. (When’s the last time you gassed up 15 times in one day? It’s not unheard of for a crook to call their friends and say “Gas is on me! Meet me at the Sinclair station at 3!”)
Rest assured that the banks will be very hesitant to divulge exactly what they’re looking at - if they made it known, then the thieves would know what to avoid doing.
If you usually spend between $200 and $300 a month, and then all of a sudden a $1500 charge at Circuit City shows up, the CC company will raise an eyebrow. They have computer programs with very secret algorithms that are constantly going over people’s accounts looking for things which are outside the statistical norm for that person.
Just a guess but I would bet when someone uses a CC under someone elses identitiy they would charge as much as they can before the CC company and actual person take notice.
Your friend’s limits (the thief’s CC) may have been maxed out rather quickly which could be seen as unusual behavior. Expecially if the limit was rather high and never reached by your friend in the past.
Also, your friend might have been using their real CC in FL and the thief may have been using theirs in CA on the same days. I think that should raise a red flag too.
I am sure someone in a CC related industry can be more specific.
Someone with more information will be along shortly, but in the meanwhile, here’s my guess.
If month after month you use a card to buy gasoline, groceries and eat out twice a week, tht’s you patern. A few items here and there on the internet or hardware store is not unusual. But if major purchases of TVs, cameras, clothing and the like appear suddenly, that could raise flags. It might just be that you’re getting eady for a vacation trip, but maybe not.
We received a call for an odd purchase. It was legit, but I was glad they called. I told them to keep it up, but they haven’t called since. We’re using the card much more frequently now, so it’s harder to keep track of.
I too have had calls from the CC company. In all cases the transactions were legitimate. In one case the call was definitely as a result of profiling; in another it was a random check-up (and they admitted as much).
Personally, I’m very glad they do it.
I had a very similar experience after making 3 rather large purchases within a week. Although it’s unnerving to get the call, it’s also reassuring to know that if somebody swiped your card and tried to use it to buy a car or book a trip to some faraway place, that they would ask first!
Similarly, a couple years ago my husband was traveling in Eastern Europe and I got a call from his bank about charges. Of course, they would not give me details since it was his solo card. So I told them, well, if the charges are made in one of these specific countries, and they are for normal travel-related things, it’s probably him. However, if they are for any OTHER country, you better cancel the card!
I was buying boots recently (and yes, they were absurdly priced) my card was “Not Approved - Call for Approval”.
I contacted the company and they were wanting to make sure I was actually trying to spend $500 on a pair of boots.
I was. I did. They’re amazing, thankyouverymuch. 
By the way, your purchases when you go out of town, especially if you go on vacation and do a lot of shopping, will tend to trigger these alerts.
I’ve had Discover call me at least twice to verify charges. One time it was because there had been two substantial charges at the same store within fifteen minutes. The clerk had forgotten to give me credit for a discount coupon but did not realize it until after the sale was processed; he voided the first charge and reprocessed the entire sale, but (according to the security person who called me) voids do not show up immediately on the master computer so the two charges caused an alert to pop up.
The other time had been during an out of town trip. Shortly before the trip there had been a difficulty with my wife’s card which had been resolved without having to cancel the account but in case of further difficulties we had set up a code word to verify our identities at future phone contacts. On the way home I attempted to charge dinner but the charge was declined; I used a different card and made a note to call Discover; when we got home there was a message to call Discover security. After going through the identity process I was told that they had put a hold on the account because of the sudden number of out of town charges. I mentioned the incident at the restaurant and was told that based on the alert the restaurant received when trying to process my card they should have called Discover security and had me verify my identity instead of just handing me the card back and accepting another.
I used to have a Corp. AMEX card with an ridiculously high limit, something like 25K BEFORE they would call me (I travel a LOT on business)
Anyway one night I got a call about some odd spending. Seems that somebody had gotten my number (from a gas station that did not have pay at the pump) and they had been using my number. From what I gathered from the loss prevention guy, they idiots had charged $10-15 in gas two or three times, and spent a couple of bucks at the store each time. If only they had known.
:smack:
I was very nice to the loss prevention guy told him if I could help in any way to call back. I never heard back, so I guess that they never caught anybody.
Another item that will trigger this is purchasing something online/over the phone, and then specifying a delivery address different from the billing address on the card.
I’ve used my credit card to purchase Xmas gifts for a nephew off at college in another state, and had them shipped directly to him. I got a call from the credit card company wanting to verify this charge. Seemed an annoyance at the time, but I’m glad they do check up on such things.
But I wish the credit card companies would spend more effort on pursuing criminal charges against people who do this, instead of just lumping it in as a “cost of doing business”, which means higher prices to all of us honest credit card users. Perhaps this isn’t worthwhile to them – our courts seem rather lenient on these criminals – but I’d think the deterrent effect would make it worthwhile.
P.S. Anybody else notice that stores don’t seem very concerned with security on credit cards anymore? For example, most clerks slide my card thru their register, then give it back to me while the receipt is still printing, never even bothering to check my signature against the one on the card. Not a good practice!
I’ve had it happen twice. Once was theft - someone had attempted to charge $1500 worth of CDs on one of our credit cards. The other instance was a legitimate charge on my part that I could easily see as being suspicious - we had just received a new credit card (the existing one was about to expire), and the first charge I put on it was for a rather expensive computer.
I was quite happy that they called me about the first instance, and didn’t mind the second call at all. I figured they were just being cautious.
I got my first CC in college and kept it only for emergencies, which means that by the time I graduated, I had never used it. The first time I made a big purchase on it was when I went on a family trip and we ended up at the Mall of America. I had either a letter or a call from the CC company waiting for me when I got home. I like that they do that sort of thing.
This may be a silly question, but is it possible to notify a credit card company in advance that you are going to be vacationing and possibly spending a lot? I’m off to Vegas in a couple days, and I imagine high spending in Vegas might just be one of those triggers.
I have heard that it is a good idea to notify your credit card company if you are planning a foreign trip and intend using your card while abroad. I think there have been cases here in the UK when people have tried to use their card in Spain and the card has been stopped because of the changed spending pattern.
This recently happened to me - someone started making cash withdrawals on my credit cards, and, since I don’t usually do that, the company noticed it and called to check the transactions. I’ve had a couple of other (random) calls to verify purchases before. Personally, I’m glad they were on-the-ball enough to spot the problem.
I think I am right in saying that neural nets have been used for this kind of analysis. If this is the case, then whatever constitutes an ‘unusual pattern’ may not be readily quantifiable.
A few years back my wife and I were doing some Xmas shopping in a large metropolitan area about half an hour from where we live. By the time we got home there was a message on our answering machine from the bank. I think we triggered it when we both charged a large purchase in two separate stores at the mall at almost exactly the same time. I was surprised but glad that they called.
Now if I could just find out who is using my debit card on eBay… 
I once pulled into a gas station only to find out the hose didn’t reach my tank. So I cancelled the transaction. I tried this about three times before I finally found one where I could get the hose to my car.
Needless to say, I got a call from my credit card company the next day. I had also bought a $700 plane ticket online that day.
However another company I have a card with didn’t seem to mind when I ran up charges of close to $5000 and kept repeatedly buy cell phones at stores far away from my home.
I use the first card more frequently.