My partner got a call last month from one of her credit card issuing companies, questioning some charges that it turned out she did not make (out of state, moderately expensive). She had the card cancelled and replaced with a new one and they are not holding her responsible for those charges (apparently, at any rate: she did have to fill out and send in an affadavit saying she didn’t authorize the charges and that the card had not been out of her possession, etc)
Today, a statement came in from a different credit card with 3 charges that she did not recognize. One of them listed an 800 number on the statement, which she called and they backtraced the charge and it was for an online porno video service and there was an email address associated with the placing of the order.
The email address was her real name appended to an ISP she’s never used.
The charges on the second credit card statement are dated to roughly the same week as the fraudulent charges on the first card. Assuming this is not coincidence, someone out there has two of her credit card numbers and her name.
Aside from letting credit card company #2 know – and all they’ve advised at this point is for her to dispute the charges, they recommended against her cancelling the card as of yet – what do you think she should do or needs to do for proper CYA purposes?
Should she put in a fraud alert with Equifax and the other two reporting companies? Should she call the police and report this? Should she cancel the second credit card despite their recommending otherwise? Does this as of yet constitute “identity theft”?
Regarding the Equifax thing: is it costly (in terms of either fees or long-term aggravation) to put a fraud alert w/ regards to one’s name? She says she’d actually be happy to have companies quit sending her pre-approved credit cards and “checks for your convenience” and so on, but what other consequences would there be? Would she have difficulty establishing new credit or getting credit limits raised or having merchants accept her credit for large expenditures, etc etc?
While we welcome the input and suggestions of anyone who has some, it would be good to know the relevant background of those who offer it. Sorry that sounds offensively phrased, I’m a bit frazzled by this at the moment and I’m not wording this well. Thank you for your responses.
I’d also say that to have two cards used seems like an inside job to me. Either she lost her id, but when she applied to the company, they would have issued a new number, or someone’s reading her mail, or she’s into some stuff she aint telling you about.
Either way, she just has to report it to the credit card company, and they should tell her what to do. There is fraud protection as the sig’s don’t match. Not only that, but unless you have a signed copy of a credit card receipt, they can’t hold you to it, even if you did purchase something.
Obligatory disclaimer: I am not offering you legal advice. I don’t know what jurisdiction you are in, and there are likely to be laws in your jurisdiction that I don’t know about. I am not your lawyer. You are not my client.
With that said, a few principles:
Your partner is not responsible for charges that she did not make, SO LONG AS, she promptly notifies the credit card companies about the fraudulent charges.
Her life will be much simpler in the long run if she is extra careful to keep a paper trail of this. If the credit card company sends her a letter, keep a copy. If they ask her to sign an affidavit, keep a copy of that. She should also sit down RIGHT NOW, and write down everything that has happened: dates, who she talked to, exactly what that 800 number was. Everything. For every fact of any significance, ask yourself, “do we have a piece of paper that says this?” and try to get one if you don’t have one.
She absolutely should notify the three credit reporting agencies, equifax, experian and trans union. Tell them there have been fraudulent charges on her card. They will send you instructions for how to handle things. Notifying these reporting agencies does not cost you anything.
Don’t freak out about this–it happens all the time–but TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY. It sounds like you are both right on top of this, and so you should be able to get it resolved in short order. But the consequences of this are way more significant than just and end to receiving junk mail from credit card companies.
Thanks, constantine! She is by nature inclined to keep diligent notes and copies of everything, so is already on the right track there, and called the credit card companies immediately and took names/date/time/etc.
We weren’t sure whether or not to call Equifax et. al. so we appreciate the clarification there. Her main concern was that putting the fraud alert in with them was going to make credit-life difficult for years to come. I gather that you’re either saying that it’s necessary nevertheless or that these worries are negligible? She did go ahead and get a credit report (w/o doing the fraud report) from the three reporting agencies and there were no signs of new accounts being opened or debuts incurred in her name (::whew::).