# Credit card fraud

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/credit-card-fraud/217613>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 7, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/credit-card-fraud/217613 "2003-12-07T21:20:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/credit-card-fraud/217613/1 "2003-12-07T21:20:50Z")

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My mother just found a fraudulent charge on her credit card. Besides contacting the credit card company, is there any place to report this? Any government agency?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/credit-card-fraud/217613/2 "2003-12-07T21:23:12Z")

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The Secret Service investigates cc fraud and identity theft.

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**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/credit-card-fraud/217613/3 "2003-12-07T21:28:37Z")

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Here’s a link for you: [United States Secret Service Financial Crimes Division](http://www.secretservice.gov/financial_crimes.shtml).

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**Author:** ![hardygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@hardygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardygrrl)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/credit-card-fraud/217613/4 "2003-12-08T00:52:11Z")

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You can also file a police report locally.  
It can be very difficult to substantiate a suspect in most cases - as long as she’s contacted the bank and cooperates with the investigation, the charges will be removed.

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**Author:** ![kmg365](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ec9cab/32.png) [@kmg365](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kmg365)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/credit-card-fraud/217613/5 "2003-12-08T22:00:29Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Ringo \*  
> \*\*The Secret Service investigates cc fraud and identity theft. \*\*

Yes they do, but they won’t investigate small-time fraudulent charges or individual cases.

The SS typically goes after such crimes that are high profile in nature, involving worldwide/nationwide crime networks/syndicates or widespread fraud activity on a large scale in the million-dollar range or greater.

I don’t know what their exact minimum is though for opening an investigation, but for federal law enforcement agencies, any fraud case involving less than a million dollars is considered chump change, at which they’ll invariably thumb their noses at, and tell you to call the local cops or file a civil lawsuit for.